Updating the Essential Skills/CLB Comparative Framework

Background Relating Canadian Language Benchmarks to Essential Skills: A Comparative Framework (CF) was produced in 2005 for the purpose of bringing together the communicative abilities described in the Essential Skills (ES) and the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB). The CF was designed from the perspective of Essential Skills, with the focus on illustrating how CLB levels lined up with ES tasks and descriptors. The CF shows that the Essential Skills generally require language ability that aligns with Stage II and Stage III of the CLB scale. For this reason, the original CF document was used primarily by ESL practitioners working with learners