The students are expected to perform at the Advanced-Low, Advanced, Advanced-High or Superior Level, as defined below:
ADVANCED−LOW (3-
first acceptable level): |
The students are able to express themselves in understandable written form and can thus communicate for basic social needs. Their writing remains simple, but the students can develop a series of coherent paragraphs on basic topics. Their vocabulary is still quite limited, and they may need a dictionary to write on a new subject for them. The students are for the most part accurate in their use of grammatical forms and agreement, but they will make some errors. The same is true of even frequently used syntactical structures. Although they are starting to develop some fluency and organizational skills, their writing remains clearly that of a foreign student, and native speakers unfamiliar with student writing may on occasion misunderstand the meaning. (Also semi-native speakers who have not formally studied their language may fall into this category because of numerous spelling mistakes and non-standard forms.) |
| ADVANCED (3): |
The students are able to write routine social correspondence, summaries, narratives and descriptions of a factual nature, as they join sentences in simple discourse of at least several paragraphs in length on familiar topics. They have sufficient writing vocabulary to express themselves simply with some circumlocution. They may still make errors in punctuation, spelling, or the formation of non-alphabetic symbols, but they exercise good control over morphology and the most frequently used syntactic structures. They can use a limited number of cohesive devices (such as pronouns) accurately. Their writing may still resemble literal translations from the native language, but a sense of organization is emerging. Their writing is understandable to natives not used to the writing of non-natives. |
| ADVANCED−HIGH (3+): |
The students are able to write about a variety of topics with significant precision and in detail. They can discuss concrete aspects of topics related to particular interests and specialized fields of competence. They often show remarkable fluency and ease of expression, but under time constraints and pressure their writing may show flaws. The students are generally strong in either grammar or vocabulary, but not in both. Some misuse of vocabulary may still be evident. Style may also be obviously foreign. |
| SUPERIOR (4): |
The students exercise good control over a full range of structures, spelling or non-alphabetic symbol production. Their broad vocabulary allows them to hypothesize and present arguments or points of view accurately and effectively. An underlying organization (such as chronological ordering, logical ordering, cause and effect, comparison, and thematic development) is strongly evident, but it may not be thoroughly executed nor totally reflect the target language patterns. Although the students are sensitive to differences in formal and informal style, they still may not tailor their writing precisely to a variety of purposes and/or readers. Their errors in writing rarely disturb natives or cause miscommunication. |
Previous Instrument, Replaced Fall 2006