Examination Syllabus Classic IESOL B1
B1 Language Specification
Functions Grammar Discourse markers Topics
• Directions
Level A2+
• Describing habits and
routines • Adverbs
• Giving personal information • Broader range of
• Greetings intensifiers such as too,
• Telling the time enough
• Understanding and using • Comparatives and
numbers superlatives
• Books and literature
• Understanding and using • Complex question tags • Education
prices • Conditionals, 2nd and 3rd
• Entertainment and
• Describing habits and • Connecting words media
routines expressing cause and • Connecting
• Film
• Describing past experiences effect, contrast etc. words, and,
• Health, medicine
• Describing people • Future continuous but, because
and exercise
• Describing places • Modals - must/can’t • Linkers:
• Language
• Describing things deduction sequential –
past time • Lifestyles
• Obligation and necessity • Modals – might, may, will,
• Connecting • News
• Requests probably
• Personal feelings,
• Suggestions • Modals – should words
expressing opinions and
• Checking understanding have/might have/etc experiences
• Describing experiences and • Modals: must/have to cause and
effect, contrast • Social interaction
events • Past continuous
etc • Sport
• Describing feelings and • Past perfect
• Transport
emotion • Past simple • Travel and holidays
• Describing places • Past tense responses
• Work and jobs
• Expressing opinions; • Phrasal verbs, extended
language of agreeing and • Present perfect continuous
disagreeing • Present perfect/past simple
• Initiating and closing • Reported speech (range of
conversation tenses)
• Managing interaction • Simple passive
(interrupting, changing topic, • Wh- questions in the past
resuming or continuing) • Will and going to, for
prediction
GA QUALIFICATION SPECIFICATION ESOL INTERNATIONAL (CLASSIC) V2 ADAPTED
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B1 Communicative Functions & Notions
• Greet • Show contrast, cause, reason, purpose
• Take leave • Ask for clarification and explanation
• Give personal information • Confirm information
• Introduce others • Check back and ask for confirmation
• Ask for personal information • Ask for advice and suggestions
• Describe self/others • Respond to suggestions
• Describe places and things • Respond to advice
• Ask for descriptions of people, places • Make suggestions and give advice
and things • Suggest action with other people
• Compare people, places, things • Praise and compliment others
• Make comparative questions • Complain
• Narrate events in the past • Warn and prohibit
• Give factual accounts
• Ask about past events
• Express certainty about the future
• Ask about future events
• Express opinions about future
possibilities
• Express obligation
• Offer help
• Make arrangements
• Make requests on the phone, in formal
and informal situations
• Make requests—ask someone to do
something in formal and informal
situations
• Make requests—ask for directions
• Respond to request for directions
• Respond to request for instructions
• Respond to request for an explanation
• Make requests—ask for permission
formally
• Express feelings, likes and dislikes, with
reasons, cause and effect
• Ask about people’s feelings, opinions,
interests, wishes, hopes
• Express views and opinions
• Apologise in formal and informal
situations
• Explain and give reasons
GA QUALIFICATION SPECIFICATION ESOL INTERNATIONAL (CLASSIC) V2 ADAPTED
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B1 Key Language Items
• Variations in word order
• Word order in complex sentences
• There has / have been
• There will be / there was going to be
• Complex sentences with one subordinate clause of either time,
reason, result, condition or concession
• Defining relative clauses using who, which, that
Simple & compound sentences
• A range of verbs + ing form
• Verbs + infinitive, with and without ‘to’
• Infinitive of purpose
• Simple reported statements
• A wide range of ‘wh-‘ questions
• Simple embedded questions
• Statements with question tags using Entry 3 tenses
• Noun phrases with pre- and post-modification
• a range of determiners
Noun phrase • Use of articles including: definite article with post modification; use of
indefinite article to indicate an example of; use of indefinite articles in
definitions
• Present perfect with: since/for; ever/never; yet/already
• Used to for regular actions in the past
• Past continuous
• Future simple verb forms
Verb forms and time markers in • Modals and forms with similar meaning: positive and negative, e.g. You
statements, interrogatives,
should/shouldn’t to express obligation; might, may, will probably to
negatives
and short forms express possibility and probability in the future; would/should for
advice; need to for obligation; will definitely to express certainty in the
future; may I? Asking for permission; I’d rather stating preference
• Common phrasal verbs and position of object
• Pronouns
• Comparative and superlative adjectives
Adjectives
• Comparative structures
• Wider range of prepositions and prepositional phrases
• A wide range of adverbial uses, e.g. To express possibility and
Adverbs and prepositional
un/certainty – possibly, perhaps, definitely
phrases
• More complex adverbial phrases of time, place, frequency, manner
• A range of intensifiers, including too, enough
• Markers to indicate: addition, sequence, contrast
• Markers to structure spoken discourse
Discourse
• Use of ellipsis in informal situations
• Use of vague language
