CCL guides

English words in your LOTE: the NAATI CCL language policy

Updated 7 September 2026 · facts checked against NAATI and Home Affairs pages on that date

This is the rule candidates worry about most: you are halfway through a health dialogue, the word you want is not there, and the English word is sitting right in front of you. The policy has a real answer, and it is more generous than most people assume, but it is not unlimited. Test where your own line is by running a full dialogue on the free daily practice test.

Policy B: what NAATI actually accepts

The wording matters, so here it is closely. NAATI recognises that there are languages in which English words are regularly and commonly used by speakers of languages other than English, and that this usage is widely understood within the LOTE-speaking community in Australia. NAATI accepts that there may be LOTE words that could have been used as an alternative to the English word, but the candidate will not be penalised where the English word is regularly and commonly used by LOTE speakers. NAATI also considers it appropriate to make limited use of English words in a CCL dialogue where the usage is part of the language norms and conventions.

Two things follow. First, the test is not asking you to purify your language. If speakers of your language in Australia genuinely say the English word, saying it is not an error. Second, the standard is community usage, not personal habit. "I always say it in English" is not the test; "speakers of this language regularly and commonly say it in English" is.

Policy A: regional variation is allowed

Policy A covers the other half of the anxiety, which is dialect. NAATI recognises that variations in vocabulary and usage arise in the same language spoken in different countries, and names Portuguese in Portugal and Brazil, French in France and Canada, and English between Australia and other English-speaking countries as examples. Candidates sitting a CCL test must be able to understand regional variations within the language, and examiner panels are aware of regional variations and make allowances for them during marking.

Note the asymmetry. Understanding regional variation is on you: the recording may not match the variety you grew up with. Producing it is where allowances are made.

Where the limit sits in your language

The general policies are the floor. The language-specific entries are where the real limit lives, and they differ sharply. A few examples from NAATI's page:

Read your own entry before you build a vocabulary list, because the same instinct that is safe in Urdu is penalised in Hazaragi.

Numbers are where marks quietly disappear

Several language policies single out numerals, and this catches strong candidates who are concentrating on meaning rather than form.

For Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi and Odia, use of English numerals is penalised, and if a figure is given in millions in English it must be converted to lakhs or crores in the LOTE, and vice versa. Marathi goes further and names sequential counting, time and fractions as well. For Dzongkha, use of English numerals while expressing numbers is penalised, large numbers must be translated into their Dzongkha equivalents, and using lakh or crore is penalised.

If your language is on that list, drill numbers separately from everything else. A dialogue about a rent bond, a payslip or an insurance excess is full of figures, and each one is a chance to lose a mark on form rather than meaning.

Names of authorities and services

Community dialogues are full of institution names, and two language policies say explicitly what to do with them. For Russian, when interpreting names of authorities for which there is a formal Russian translation, candidates should use it. For Ukrainian, where there is no formal Ukrainian translation of an authority's name, candidates should use the English name and its transliteration or transcription.

That is a reasonable default even where your language's entry is silent: use the established rendering if your community has one, and otherwise carry the English name across rather than inventing a translation on the spot. Names like Centrelink, Medicare, Services Australia and the NDIS have no neat equivalent in most languages, and an invented translation is an accuracy problem, not a vocabulary win. The Australian terms glossary collects the ones that come up most.

Mixing two related languages

If you sit in Indonesian or Malay, there is a separate trap. NAATI treats them as two languages and lists differences in vocabulary, grammatical structures and pronunciation. Examiners expect candidates who nominated Indonesian to use identifiably Indonesian usages and those who nominated Malay to use identifiably Malay usages, and when a candidate produces an excessive number of usages belonging to the other language, examiners may decide to fail the candidate for that reason. Urdu candidates have more room: limited use of Hindi is acceptable where the candidate demonstrates good transfer of meaning and the words would be easily understood by a majority of Urdu speakers.

Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are also treated as separate languages, and candidates must nominate which one they are tested in. Check the languages page for what is covered in practice.

How this shows up in your marks

Language use is not marked as a separate box labelled "English words". It feeds the criteria NAATI publishes: accuracy, meaning how correct the information is and not removing or adding any information; quality of language, meaning good sentence structure, natural use of the language and pronunciation, the right level of formality and not making many grammatical errors; and quality of delivery, meaning no excessive pauses, hesitations or self-corrections. Each error takes off a different number of marks depending on how much it affects the overall communication.

That framing is useful. An English word your community genuinely uses does not damage communication, which is why the policy tolerates it. Reaching for English every third word does, because it stops sounding like natural use of the language. Groping for a "purer" word for five seconds also does, because that becomes a delivery problem. See common mistakes for how the criteria interact.

Practising the judgement, not the word list

You cannot memorise your way out of this, because the decision is made live and under time. What you can do is make the decision often enough that it stops costing you seconds.

Record yourself interpreting a passage, then listen back and mark every English word you used. For each one, ask whether speakers of your language in Australia regularly and commonly use it, or whether you reached for it because the LOTE word was slow to arrive. The first group is fine. The second group is a vocabulary gap to close, and NAATI's own advice points at brochures, magazines and newspapers in both languages as the way to close it.

Then rehearse under real conditions, because the pressure changes your choices. Our free daily dialogue is marked segment by segment so you can see what was retained, omitted or distorted; the score is our model's estimate, not a NAATI result. For the wider rulebook, read the test format and scoring and pass mark.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use English words in the LOTE part of the NAATI CCL test?

Yes, within limits. Under Policy B, NAATI accepts that there may be LOTE words that could have been used instead of an English word, but a candidate will not be penalised where the English word is regularly and commonly used by LOTE speakers. Limited use is also considered appropriate where it is part of the language norms and conventions.

What is Policy A in the NAATI CCL language policy?

Policy A covers language variation. NAATI recognises that vocabulary and usage vary between countries that share a language, for example Portuguese in Portugal and Brazil, or French in France and Canada. Candidates must be able to understand regional variations, and examiner panels make allowances for variation during marking.

Will I lose marks for using too many English words?

You can, depending on the language. The language-specific policies set the limit. For Ukrainian, excessive use of Anglicisms is penalised. For Punjabi, frequent use of words that would not be understood by many Punjabi speakers is penalised. For Persian, only English words with no substitute in Persian are allowed.

Do I have to convert numbers into my own language?

For several languages, yes. For Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi and Odia, using English numerals is penalised, and a figure given in millions in English must be converted to lakhs or crores and vice versa. For Dzongkha, use of English numerals is penalised and large numbers must be given in Dzongkha equivalents.

How do I interpret the name of a government department or authority?

It depends on your language policy. For Russian, when interpreting names of authorities for which there is a formal Russian translation, candidates should use it. For Ukrainian, where there is no formal Ukrainian translation, candidates should use the English name and its transliteration or transcription.

Does the language policy apply to the English half of the dialogue too?

Policy A applies to English as well, since NAATI names English between Australia and other English-speaking countries as an example of language variation. Marks are deducted for the quality of language in both tested languages, including sentence structure, natural use of the language, pronunciation, register and grammatical errors.

Where do I find the rules for my specific language?

NAATI publishes a Language Policy for CCL Tests page that lists general Policies A and B, then language-specific information for each language it tests. The language-specific policies complement the general policies but do not override them. Read your language's entry before you start preparing vocabulary.

Sources

• https://www.naati.com.au/resources/language-policy-ccl/
• https://www.naati.com.au/migration-assessments/ccl/

Facts checked against NAATI and Home Affairs pages on 7 September 2026.

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