The Common Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages developed by the Council of Europe, an international standard and common basis for foreign language education, organises language proficiency in six levels, A1 to C2, which can be regrouped into three broad levels: basic user (A1 and A2), independent user (B1 and B2) and proficient user (C1 and C2).

The levels are defined through ‘can-do’ descriptors which specify progressive mastery of each skill, which is graded on a six-level scale as mentioned before: A1 (60 hours), A2 (90 hours), B1 (120 hours), B2 (150 hours), C1 (180 hours) and C2 (210 hours).

All in all, based on the minimum number of hours suggested by the Instituto Cervantes for each level (shown above, although the total duration of each level depends also on the actual capacities of each student and type of course selected), at least 810 hours are recommended for a student to go all the way from absolute beginner to reach and complete the C2 level.

Contents of our courses are carefully planned based on the CEFR, but can be flexible in terms of duration, that is, we do not ask students to keep up with the pace we determine, but the opposite: teachers adjust to the capacities of each group. This means that, although we do know perfectly well what the starting point and the goals of the course are, we cannot be certain of how each group will eventually progress nor of how far they will actually get.