full professional proficiency in English (2025)

I don't understand “full professional proficiency in English.” My first reaction is the English skills of a professor who teaches English language in a university. Others appear not having reached full professional proficiency (the key is the word "full.")

What do you understnad for "full professional proficiency"?

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For example, you can write, “I cannot understand what the authors are trying to communicate here.” You can also suggest editing help from someone with “full professional proficiency in English.” Don’t demand “a native English speaker”; that is not synonymous with being a good writer.

Source: Science Oct. 3, 2019
Reviewers, don’t be rude to nonnative English speakers

Full is an adjective ~ complete.

In terms of proficiency in ascending order:

non-proficient
quite proficient
proficient
very proficient
professionally proficient -> implies "with professional qualifications" but may have little experience.
fully professionally proficient -> implies "with the highest professional qualifications" and has wide experience.

That said, there is a tendency in English to use "full" as a rather vague intensifier: "If you go into an English pub, make sure that you get a full pint of beer - some barmen try to cheat you."
Obviously, "full pint" seems wrong as a pint is either "full" or it is not a pint.

NewAmerica said:

My first reaction is the English skills of a professor who teaches English language in a university.

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In some cultures, people tend to accept such things as evidence of competence, whereas here in the U.S. people are judged by their demonstrated capability, far more than by any piece of paper that might be hanging on the wall.
From my own experience, I once had a professor in German literature who could not carry on a conversation in German.
The proof, as we say, is in the pudding.

Roxxxannne said:

To me, a person who is professionally proficient in English is proficient in English as used in his or her profession. In other words, chemists are professionally proficient in English if they can explain their research in chemistry clearly and correctly in English (and understand what other chemists are writing and saying). They may not necessarily be proficient in English as used by an archaeologist or a yacht carpenter or a childcare provider in a daycare center.

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Yes this is a very good point.

Many maybe most native English speakers do not have proficiency in academic or even formal reading or writing. In my recreational and club life, I interact with a lot of people who have no college education but are native English speakers. In my work life I teach people academic reading and writing. Certainly it is not something that comes automatically or that most people really learn in high school.

So you need someone who is professionally competent in your discipline to edit your paper. You are much better off with a very proficient person in your field who has English as an additional language, than you are with a native speaker that doesn't understand your field.

You might even be better off with this person as an editor, than with an English professor who doesn't understand particle physics or chemistry!

sdgraham said:

In some cultures, people tend to accept such things as evidence of competence, whereas here in the U.S. people are judged by their demonstrated capability, far more than by any piece of paper that might be hanging on the wall.
From my own experience, I once had a professor in German literature who could not carry on a conversation in German.
The proof, as we say, is in the pudding.

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Thank you for the nice saying, Sir!

NewAmerica said:

What do you understnad for "full professional proficiency"?

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To me the word "professional" means "does it as their profession". It is their full-time job. And "proficiency" means they aren't trainees. They are fully trained. It also means their skill level is very high.

A person whose job involves using their "skill in English" is better at English than an average speaker of English. There are many jobs like this:
- a university or high-school teacher of English (to English speakers, not an ESL teacher)
- a copy editor for a magazine, for books, for other published articles
- a writer for those things

To me it suggests someone, whatever their job or job title, who can write good, solid English in an occupational setting at a level indistinguishable (or nearly so) from a native speaker. In other words, when reading what they write, it's not immediately obvious that English is not their first language.

They might not have the same proficiency in colloquial language and might not know the current slang or casual idioms but those skills aren't needed in a highly professional, especially academic, formal setting.

That is a practical criterion.

Thank you.