The first level is educational planning. The government decides what languages are taught, to whom, and what educational resources are appropriated. The decision is in accordance with the socio-economic needs of the society. The social aim or objective is clearly stated.

The second level is preparation. On this level, there are two parallel sets of activities. One is syllabus design and material development. The syllabus and the textbooks are prepared according to the social aim for teaching a language. The other set of activities is teacher preparation and retraining. Teachers have to be retrained in order to bring the new ideas into practice in the classroom.

The third level is operation in the classroom. There are three main variables that determine the outcome of teaching and learning—the learners, the teacher, and the textbook.

The fourth level is evaluation, mostly in the form of testing. Language testing is a complex activity which is guided by linguistic and psychological theories.