C2 Mastery (Proficiency)

Students at the C2 level on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) demonstrate a degree of precision, appropriateness and ease with the language which typifies the speech of those who have been highly successful learners. They are able to convey finer shades of meaning precisely by using, with reasonable accuracy, a wide range of modification devices. They have a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of connotative level of meaning and can backtrack and restructure around a difficulty so smoothly the interlocutor is hardly aware of it.

At the C2 level of proficiency, students can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. They can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. They are able to express themselves spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations.

Here are 12 grammar points you might find yourself teaching at this level and an example of each in brackets.

This list of grammar points is a sample for this level and by no means a complete list.

1. Participle clauses (Having already read the book, Mary was really excited to see the new film.)

2. Passives (The new iPhone will have been released by this time next month.)

3. Articles & Determiners (I don’t have any money.)

4. Adverbs (They replied to my letter after a while.)

5. Inversion (Only once before have I felt like this about a project.)

6. Prepositions (The survey does not allow for the fact that some students are attending part-time.)

7. Conditionals (Given that this area is liable to flood, it would be unwise in the extreme to consider buying a house here.)

8. Purpose and Reason Clauses (I’d close the window in case it rains.)

9. Future Forms (Passengers are to leave by the rear door of the aircraft.)

10. Unreal Tenses & Subjunctives (It’s high time you started studying!)

11. Emphasis (What I don’t understand is why she suddenly decided to leave.)

12. Concessive Clauses (Although we were exhausted, we stayed up to watch the end of the film.)

We have chosen one of these grammar points to focus on: Unreal Tenses & Subjunctives

Presentation

To talk about situations in the present, past or future which are imagined or unreal, we use wish/if only, It’s (high) time, would rather/sooner, would prefer, as if/though, suppose/supposing, what if followed by past tenses.

It’s high time we booked our tickets. (We haven’t booked our tickets yet but we should in case the prices go up).

I‘d sooner have slept in an igloo. (I didn’t like the hotel I stayed in).

I would prefer to have visited France. (I went on holiday to Italy, but I didn’t like it and prefer France better).

The tour guide wasn’t interested in our safety, it’s as if he weren’t responsible! (The tour guide was careless and not doing his job properly).

Suppose we‘d fallen in the hole! (I’m imagining what would have happened, but we didn’t fall into the hole).

What if we hadn’t had our mobile phones with us? (I’m imagining what the situation would have been like if we hadn’t had our phones during a particular situation).

Practice

Choose the best explanation (a or b).