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Fluent English is not enough

By Michael Ukwuma

Why strong English speakers, including many Nigerians and West Africans, still miss their target, and how to avoid it.

I have heard it many times. 'I speak English every day. I schooled in English. Why should I prepare for CELPIP?'

Here is the honest answer. CELPIP does not ask whether you speak English. It asks whether you can do specific tasks, in a specific format, in a specific time, the way a Canadian rater expects. That is a different thing.

What the raters say

A former CELPIP writing rater was asked about higher level and native speaker test takers. Two problems came up. First, tone: sarcasm and rudeness, especially in complaint emails. Second, ignoring instructions, including writing far more than the word limit. Both cost points no matter how good the grammar is.

Paragon publishes no results by country, so nobody can honestly tell you that Nigerians score lower in any skill. But the pattern above is real, and it is exactly the trap a confident English user falls into.

The rest of this lesson is part of full access.