Oral Proficiency Exam for Fall 2009


SFS and MSFS Spanish Proficiency Exams Fall 2009

I. FAQs


1. When?  This Fall semester, the exam will be administered on the 17th and 19th of November of 2009.


2. How?  The sign-up period to register for the exam will take place during October 13th - October 16th, 2009. You have to come to the Spanish and Portuguese Department (ICC, 4th floor) to sign up (the sheets are located at the front desk). Expect a message from the program administrators with instructions and relevant information after you register.


3. Who?  The Spanish proficiency exams are administered ONLY to graduate and undergraduate students in the School of Foreign Service.

This is relevant information regarding who can sign up to take the exams:

1. Students who plan to go abroad in one of the two summer programs for which the Spanish & Portuguese Department are responsible will take the exam at the end of the program. The two programs that offer exams are Quito and Barcelona; they offer exams to SFS students the evening prior to the last day of classes for the program.

2. Students who plan to spend at least one semester abroad do not need to take the exam.

3. Students who are currently registered in any of the four sections of Oral Review (Span161) will take the exam on the day assigned by the registrar's office for the final exam. The faculty of record (Mr. Baquero-Pecino, Ms. Maouelainin, Ms. Calvi and Dr. Klien for this Fall 08 semester) and another faculty member will administer the exam.

4. Oral Review prepares the students for the Proficiency Exam which will complete their language requirement for graduation. Students may first attempt to take the Proficiency Exam after completion of Advanced II or Intensive Advanced 2 (Latin America in Context) with their instructor's WRITTEN permission and an average grade of A in BOTH Advanced 1 and 2. Students who fail the exam must pay the $25 fee and complete SPAN 161 before retaking it.

5. Students are allowed to take the exam twice.

6. Students who wish to consolidate their knowledge of Spanish may take SPAN 151 Spanish Advanced Grammar or SPAN 200 Academic Writing (or both) before taking the exam.


4. What?

The exam consists of a 20 minute interview with two exam administrators.

It is divided into three parts:

1. Warm-up. During this short period, the examiners try their best to make the examinee comfortable by asking him/her questions on the here and now

2. Nucleus (15 minutes). The examinee summarizes the content of the article that s/he has read just before the exam, thus demonstrating reading comprehension skills. The examinee should demonstrate ability to situate the news within a historical perspective, and draw parallels with similar issues in other countries, including, but not exclusively, the US. At the end of this section, the examinee should be able to state his/her position on the issue and state the reasons behind that position

3. Close. The examiners may use this brief period to prompt, prod and push examiners to perform some of the required performance in 2 above. The examiner should, throughout the exam but especially at this  point, show command of pragmatics (politeness, turn taking).

Newspaper articles are taken from major Spanish & Latin American newspapers and deal with current issues in the Spanish speaking areas which have, oftentimes, been discussed in Spanish 161 (Oral Review).


II. PASS/FAIL REQUIREMENTS

1. Reading Comprehension/Comprehension: The examinee understands the content of a newspaper or magazine article on current events and shows ability to 1) summarize a given text in a cohesive and coherent manner without prompting, 2) produce a statement summarizing his/her own view of the event, and 3) answer follow up questions showing both ability to comprehend and prior knowledge on general encyclopedic points related to the content of the article.

2. Grammar: The examinee shows ability to both narrate and describe events producing paragraph-length discourse in all major time frames (past, present, and future). S/he may have problems regarding the use of ser/estar, subjunctive and preterit/imperfect contrasts but they should not interfere with comprehension. The reference point for ‘comprehension’ is the native speaker monolingual not used to exchanges with non-native speakers.


3. Vocabulary/ Professional Vocabulary: Vocabulary may be primarily generic in nature when dealing with personal topics, but the examinee shows command of professional, specialized lexicon when dealing with topics of interest (such as US and international economy, politics, and/or societal issues). Circumlocution and rephrasing are to be expected.


4. Speech: Speech has to be clear and not lead to confusion.  Pronunciation, lexicon, grammar and paragraph structure should not be so faulty as to prevent comprehension by native speakers unaccustomed to interacting with non-native speakers. Discourse may still reflect the oral paragraph structure of the examinee’s own language rather than that of the target language.


5. Knowledge of Subject Matter: The examinee has to show knowledge of the geography, customs, socioeconomic and sociopolitical structures as well as the history of Latin America and Spain.  S/he also has to be aware of and knowledgeable about the past and present status of the relationship between those countries and the United States as well as current issues of importance in the Spanish speaking world.