Swedish for university staff (SFU)

On completion of the course SFU level 1 the student shall:

• be able to account for a few very simple grammatical structures and syntax patterns from a set studied
• be able to describe a few cultural aspects of Swedish society, such as certain customs
• be able to ask and respond to simple questions orally and make and respond to simple statements in familiar areas (oral proficiency)
• be able to write very short text with short phrases and sentences describing, for example, family, home situation or educational background (written proficiency)
• be able to follow and summarise slow and clear speech (listening comprehension)
• be able to read and summarise short texts featuring highly frequent words, including certain shared international words (reading comprehension)

On completion of the course SFU level 2 the student shall:

• be able to account for a few simple grammatical structures and syntax patterns from a set studied
• be able to describe some fundamental traits of Swedish pronunciation
• be able to describe a few cultural aspects of Swedish society, such as a certain customs or everyday circumstances
• be able to interact in prepared situations and short conversations in a relaxed manner, provided that the interlocutor provides help, when required (oral proficiency)
• be able to write short basic descriptions of events, previous activities and personal experiences, using connectives (written proficiency)
• be able to understand and summarise clear standard Swedish describing familiar things, provided that clarifications are made, when required (listening comprehension)
• be able to understand and summarise short simple texts on familiar subjects, featuring highly frequent vocabulary on every day and working situations (reading comprehension)

On completion of the course SFU level 3 the student shall:

• be able to account for simple grammatical structures and syntax patterns in modern Swedish
• be able to describe a few cultural aspects of Swedish society, such as an important person in Swedish history
• be able to account for a topical issue in Swedish public life
• be able to engage in conversations on familiar topics, express personal views and exchange information on familiar topics or current events, without previous preparation (oral proficiency)
• be able to write short coherent text on several well-known subjects in an individual field of interest (written proficiency)
• be able to understand and summarise the main content of clear standard Swedish describing common subjects concerning leisure activities, work, etc (listening comprehension)
• be able to find and summarise relevant information in everyday reading matter, such as letters, leaflets and short public circulars (reading comprehension)

On completion of the course SFU level 4 the student shall:

• be able to account for a few key aspects of the morphology and syntax of modern Swedish
• be able to account for topical issues in current Swedish public debate
• be able to describe a chosen Swedish literary text and its author
• be able to make a prepared simple presentation on a familiar subject (oral proficiency)
• be able to write clear and detailed texts on several different subjects (written proficiency)
• be able to understand and summarise both general content and specific details of uncomplicated factual information (listening comprehension)
• be able to summarise uncomplicated factual texts in a familiar field with satisfactory degree of comprehension (reading comprehension)

On completion of the course SFU level 5 the student shall:

• account for some key aspects of the morphological and syntactical structure of modern Swedish
• account for a few current events in different societal contexts covered in Swedish mass media and with satisfactory understanding account for uncomplicated non-fiction texts on a familiar subject (reading comprehension)
• provide arguments for or against a certain position and explain the advantages and disadvantages of different views (oral proficiency)
• hold a talk on a familiar subject (oral proficiency)
• write clear, detailed and syntactically correct texts on several different subjects and compile and evaluate information and arguments from different sources (written proficiency)
• follow and report a long oral presentation (listening comprehension)
• read and summarise articles and features on topical issues (reading comprehension)