This post is designed to test your knowledge of English for Canadian immigration. In this article, you would know if you can take the English tests that are accepted for Canadian immigration. At the end of the article, you will know if you are prepared to take the immigration English test.
English and French are the two official languages of Canada. To have a chance of immigrating to Canada, you must be able to communicate effectively in either of the two languages. Different levels of English proficiency is required for different immigration streams. If you applying for immigration to Canada through the Trade scheme, the language requirement is not as high as for the Federal Skilled Worker scheme. For example, the requirement for Speaking and Listening is CLB 5 (English) and CLB 4 (English) for Writing and Reading while CLB 7 (English) is required for the Skilled immigrants (Express Entry) scheme.
QUIZ: Check your Level of English for Canadian Immigration.
If you didn’t know, CLB is the benchmark for language proficiency in Canada and it means Canadian Language Benchmark. I will give you in details, each level of the benchmark and what it means. For example, the first level that is useful for immigration purposes is “Less than high basic” and it corresponds to CLB 3. The list below will also show you what you need to score in the IELTS to cross the benchmark.
Check if Your Level of English Enough For Canada Immigration?
It is also important to note that each language skill (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) has its own different benchmark. For example, a score of 7.5 in speaking is CLB 10 (the highest) while the same score in Listening is CLB 8 (high intermediate).
QUIZ: Check your Level of English for Canadian Immigration.
Check the IELTS Scores and their corresponding CLBs
In the chart below, you will see all the IELTS scores possible and their CLBs. If you are applying for Canadian immigration, you will also see how many points it adds to your CRS in the image that follows the chart.
| CLB Level | Reading | Writing | Listening | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7.5 |
| 9 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 |
| 8 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 6.5 |
| 7 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| 6 | 5.0 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| 5 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| 4 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
If you are immigrating with your family as a skilled worker, you are the one that needs to score high in the IELTS exam. Your spouse (secondary applicant) does not need to score that high. If you don’t want your spouse to take the IELTS, it reduces the marks you get for language. You will see everything in the chart below.
The implication of the chart above is that, for the Federal Skilled Workers scheme, you need to score Reading – 7, Writing – 7, Speaking – 7, and Listening – 8. These are all CLB 9.
For the Federal Trade scheme, you need to score at least 5.0 in the IELTS Speaking and Listening, 5.0 in Writing, and 4.0 in Reading (all CLB 5 English).
It is essential to know that I am only using IELTS as an example. It is only one of the two testing bodies designated by the IRCC for language proficiency tests. Apart from IELTS, the other one is known as CELPIP (Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program).
To help you, we have created a sample quiz that can help check your level of proficiency in the English language. You can click the link below to test yourself.
QUIZ: Check your Level of English for Canadian Immigration.
Finally, I believe that these tests of English, especially listening and reading are more of a test of your ability to listen and read to understand than they are of the English language. If you are able to listen and read carefully and understand, you should be able to ace these aspects of the test.
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