One French Route Asks B1 Where the Others Ask C1

Ontario's teaching regulator accepts four French qualifications for the same requirement.

Three of them ask for C1. The fourth asks for B1, and it is one of the two that never expire.

SpeakShark is free for the English half of the same requirement, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: the four routes · the two level gap · one structural reason · diplomas and tests · a teaching test in French · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• DALF: C1. TCF: C1. TEF: C1. DELF: B1.
• The DELF requirement sits two levels below the other three.
• DALF and DELF are valid for life. TCF and TEF last two years.
• A teaching-specific French test exists, requiring 60 in all four skills.
• Results are accepted from all authorised institutions, with no centre list.

Four French routes

Two things jump out of that table before any analysis: one row asks for a different level from the others, and two rows never expire.

A two level gap

C1 and B1 are not adjacent. B2 sits between them.

So a candidate holding a DELF B1 and a candidate holding a TCF at C1 satisfy the same requirement, having demonstrated levels two steps apart on the framework both are measured against.

We are reporting that as published, and not calling it an error.

This is the second time in this batch that a single cell in a published table has sat out of step with everything around it. The other was the UK approved test list, where one test's C2 listening threshold is set below the same test's B1 threshold, and it appears identically in two separately maintained government files. We handled that one the same way, in one listening score on the UK visa list is lower.

The discipline is the same. A published anomaly is worth reporting and not worth explaining, because the explanations available are equally plausible and none of them is evidenced.

One structural reason, and what it does not explain

There is one thing visible from the outside that accounts for part of it.

The DELF covers levels A1 to B2. The DALF covers C1 and C2. They are two halves of one family, and a candidate reaching C1 sits the DALF rather than the DELF.

So a C1 requirement on the DELF would be unmeetable. The regulator could not have written it, and setting the DELF requirement below C1 is therefore not a mistake in itself.

What that does not explain is B1 rather than B2.

B2 is the top of the DELF range. If the intention were to name the highest DELF level available, the entry would read B2. It reads B1, which is two steps below the C1 required everywhere else on the list and one step below what the qualification family could have offered.

We do not know why, and we are not going to invent a reason.

Diplomas never expire, tests do

The validity column is the cleaner finding, and it lines up with a pattern that has held across every country in this series.

DALF and DELF are valid for life. Both are diplomas awarded by the French state education system.

TCF and TEF are valid for two years. Both are tests.

That is exactly the split we found elsewhere. Spain defines its state language school certificates through an equivalence table written into law rather than letting them expire, covered in what the old Avanzado certificate is worth today. France's DCL state diploma never expires, covered in the DCL. And on the commercial side, the Oxford Test of English states that results are valid for life, covered in Oxford Test of English.

The rule that keeps holding: an award records that you reached a level, and awards do not decay. A test estimates where you are now, and estimates go stale. Everything else in this series is a two year window, compared in English certificates that expire.

Here a single regulator honours that distinction on one page, giving permanence to the two diplomas and two years to the two tests, without commenting on it.

A French test built for teachers

One more entry deserves naming, because it completes a pair.

The Évaluation des compétences linguistiques pour la profession enseignante, ECLPE, requires a minimum of 60 in writing, speaking, reading and listening, valid for two years.

Its English counterpart, the Language Competency Assessment for the Teaching Profession, carries the same 60 in all four skills, covered in one province accepts the two tests another refuses.

So teaching has a profession-specific language assessment in both official languages, on a regulator's accepted list, and almost nobody writes about either. Healthcare has OET and CELBAN; aviation has ELPAC, covered in aviation splits Level 6 into its own separate test and CELBAN speaking for Canadian nurses.

We have read a regulator's score requirement for these two and not the tests themselves, so nothing here describes their format.

What to do with this

• Check which of the four you hold. The requirement differs by qualification.
• If you hold a diploma, it does not expire. DALF and DELF are valid for life.
• If you hold a test result, count two years.
• Confirm the DELF figure before planning around it. Two levels is a wide gap.
• Consider the teaching-specific test if it is available to you.

Whichever language you are certifying in, the same regulator sets speaking at or near the top of every English test on its list, and speaking is the skill that does not improve by reading quietly. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner are the practical routes, testing your speaking level free shows where you stand, and CEFR levels for speaking explains what B1, B2 and C1 describe. Nigeria counts for Ontario teachers covers the routes that need no test at all, England measures teachers' English in GCSE grades covers the UK equivalent, and what C2 actually means sets the top of the scale. For how examiners mark spoken English, Cambridge speaking criteria by level works from real scored candidates.

What we could not verify

We did not establish why the DELF requirement is B1. No reason is published.

We did not study the French scales. We report the levels as the regulator states them.

We did not read the ECLPE specification, only the regulator's score line.

We did not check whether the DELF entry has been revised. The page carries no visible change history.

We did not verify the DALF and DELF level ranges against the awarding body; that description is general knowledge about the qualification family rather than something we read on this page.

This is not certification advice. It is a reading of a published requirements page, linked below.

How we researched this guide

We read the French half of a page we had opened for the English half, which is a habit worth having.

Most readers of that page need one language and stop at it. Reading both is what produces the comparison, and the comparison is where the finding is: four routes to one requirement, three at C1 and one at B1.

We then looked for a structural explanation before reaching for an editorial one, and found half of it. The DELF stops at B2 and the DALF starts at C1, so a C1 DELF requirement would be impossible to satisfy. That accounts for the requirement being below C1 and not for it being B1 rather than B2.

Stopping there was deliberate. Half an explanation is more useful to a reader than a whole invented one, and this is the second anomaly in the batch handled that way.

The validity column was the quieter finding and the more reliable one. Two diplomas valid for life, two tests valid two years, on one page, from one body, is the clearest single illustration of a distinction we have now seen in four countries.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, so we should be clear that we do not teach French and cannot help with any of the four qualifications above.

What this page is useful for is the English side of the same requirement, where the same regulator puts speaking at or near the top of every accepted test.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, we issue no certificates, we work in English only, and we are not on any regulator's accepted list.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here if English is the language you are certifying in.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

• Site: speakshark.com
• Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

• Ontario College of Teachers, language requirements: the four accepted French qualifications with DALF at overall C1 and DELF at overall B1 both valid for life, TCF and TEF at C1 in reading, listening, writing and speaking valid for two years, the ECLPE requirement of 60 in all four skills, and the statement that results are accepted from all institutions authorised to offer DALF, DELF, TCF and TEF
• GOV.UK, list of approved Secure English Language Tests taken in the UK: the other published anomaly handled the same way in this batch
• Oxford Test of English: the commercial exam that states results are valid for life, used in the diploma against test comparison
• Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the definitions of B1, B2 and C1

FAQ