Proposal: Standardizing fluency Levels in languages Schema

[m3lixir]

Problem

There is currently no standardized way to measure fluency in a language. The fluency field is simply a string, which leads to inconsistencies when used across different themes. For example, some themes cause errors when fluency is set to values like "2" instead of descriptive terms like "Master".

"languages": {
  "type": "array",
  "description": "List any other languages you speak",
  "additionalItems": false,
  "items": {
    "type": "object",
    "additionalProperties": true,
    "properties": {
      "language": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "e.g. English, Spanish"
      },
      "fluency": {
        "type": "string",
        "description": "e.g. Fluent, Beginner"
      }
    }
  }
}

Current schema.json (v1.0.0)

To address this, I propose adopting a standardized set of levels or bands to measure language proficiency. This will ensure consistency across all resume themes and eliminate errors caused by ambiguous or non-standard inputs. While we don’t need to default to test scores, we could adopt levels from a well-known scale to provide a clear and uniform way to measure language proficiency.

Proposed Solution

I suggest using the ILR (Interagency Language Roundtable) scale, which includes six levels of proficiency:

Level	Proficiency	Description
0	No proficiency	Knowledge of the language is nonexistent or limited to a few words.
1	Elementary proficiency	Basic sentence structure and common tourist phrases.
2	Limited working proficiency	Ability to engage in limited social conversations and understand basic commands.
3	Professional working proficiency	Fluent enough to contribute in a workplace, though with some accent or terminology limitations.
4	Full professional proficiency	Advanced level, with the ability to hold conversations on most topics, though occasional mistakes may occur.
5	Primary fluency / bilingual proficiency	Completely fluent with little to no accent, similar to a native speaker.

Source: Indeed

The fluency field should be updated to accept a numeric value between 0 and 5, reflecting the ILR proficiency levels:

"fluency": {
  "type": "number",
  "minimum": 0,
  "maximum": 5,
  "description": "A number from 0 to 5 representing proficiency levels: No proficiency (0), Elementary proficiency (1), Limited working proficiency (2), Professional working proficiency (3), Full professional proficiency (4), and Primary fluency / bilingual proficiency (5)."
}

Benefits

• Consistency: Establishes a uniform standard for measuring language proficiency.
• Clarity: Reduces confusion and prevents theme-related errors due to inconsistent string values.
• Flexibility: The numeric scale is easy to understand and aligns with commonly used proficiency measures.