Since the standards of reading competence is the focus of the article, we find some representative characteristics of reading competences by decipher the scales   of it from the aspects of overall reading comprehension (Council of Europe, 2001, p。 69), as well as scales of reading correspondence (Council of Europe, 2001, p。 69), reading for orientation(Council of Europe, 2001, p。70), reading for information and argument (Council of Europe, 2001, p。70), and reading instruction (Council of Europe, 2001, p。71)。 See table 2。

Table 2。 Characteristics of Reading Competence in CEFR。 ( Lv, 2005)

To differentiate the various levels of reading competence, the using of different descriptors to illustrate the gradable “can do” is necessary。 As you can see in these seven aspects, we use different words to describe the learners’ reading competence accordingly。

In terms of verbs of reading comprehension, the word “understand” is the most commonly used, and “identify” almost exists at every level; while the “interpret”, “appreciate” are required at level C2, “recognize” at level A1 and B1。 As we can  see,

adopting different types of verbs can vividly present the gradable levels accordingly，

thus both the learner and teacher can evaluation the English proficiency accurately and reach aim of self-accessing。

Likewise, in the light of types, topic, familiarity, complexity and difficulty of texts as well as language features, the distribution of different words at each level can function progressively in order to meet the different reading competence。

2。1。2 Reading competence in ACTFL

ACTFL refers to American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language and the core of this project is the ACTFL proficiency guidelines, which are a description of what inpiduals can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context (ACTFL, 2012)。 The guidelines mainly consist of five major levels of proficiency: Distinguished, Superior, Advanced, Intermediate, and Novice, among which the levels Advanced, Intermediate, and Novice are subpided into High, Mid, and Low sublevels (ACTFL, 2012)。 See the figure 3。论文网

Figure 3。 The levels of proficiency (ACTFL, 2012)

As previously mentioned, comparing to the CEFR, the ACTFL guidelines have the similar characteristics in defining and leveling reading competences, which also use the way of “can do” words to illustrate the various competences at the progressive reading levels。 We have tried to probe into the components of reading competence for readers to better understand this aspect。 See table 3。 characteristics of reading competence in ACTFL (Lv, 2015)。

Table 3。 Characteristics of reading competence in ACTFL (Lv, 2015)。

From this table 3 we can find out some similarities between ACTFL and   CEFR,

i。e。 both of them employ progressive indicators to label the different levels from the lower to the higher。。 It echoes Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) which describes learners’ cognitive developmental progression from 。low to high, or bottom-to-top, in an inverted pyramid (See figure 4)。 Take the verbs in the first column as an example, “understand” appears almost throughout the levels, “comprehend” is employed at the level of advanced, “recognize” at the lowest level versus “appreciate”, “reason”, “analysis” at the highest level。 The adoption of these verbs intend to differentiate learners’ cognitive ability at different stages and to provide guides for teachers so that their instruction can cater to different needs of students at different cognitive levels, as presented by the Wheel of Bloom’s Taxonomy and Learning in Action (See figure 5)。 However, it must be clarified that the result of cognitive procession for language content, which called cognitive actions, is not necessary synchronized with language ability。文献综述