OEPT Practice Test

Level

English skills...

Response Characteristics

55

MORE THAN ADEQUATE PROFICIENCY for classroom teaching. Majority of items rated 55.

Strong skills evident on all items. Little listener effort required to adjust to accent. Consistently intelligible, comprehensible, coherent, with displays of lexico-syntactic sophistication, fluency and automaticity. Speaker is capable of elaborating a complex or personalized message using a variety of tense/aspect and mood. May show minor fluency or prosodic issues but listener easily follows message. Any grammar errors are minor (e.g. omission of 3rd pers. sing. present morpheme). Good listening comprehension. Speaker has sufficient range, depth and sophistication of English to be placed in any instructional position on campus.

50

ADEQUATE PROFICIENCY for successful classroom communication with support. Majority of items 50, possibly some 55 or very few 45.

Small amount of listener effort may be required to adjust to accent/prosody/intonation, but adjustment happens quickly. Consistently intelligible, comprehensible, coherent. Speaker may exert some noticeable effort and speed may be variable, but there are some fluent runs and no consistent disfluencies. Despite minor errors of grammar/vocab usage/stress which do not interfere with listener comprehension, message is coherent and meaning is easy to follow. Some lexico-syntactic sophistication, more than basic vocab usage and syntax. Good listening comprehension. Does not require support – is capable of consistently successful classroom communication.

45

BORDERLINE with 50 or INCONSISTENT PERFORMANCES ACROSS ITEMS - Minimally adequate for classroom teaching with support. Mix of 45 and 50 item scores.

Tolerable listener effort required to adjust to accent. Consistently intelligible and coherent. Strengths & weaknesses, inconsistencies across other characteristics/across items. Profiles vary: Responses may require more than a little noticeable effort for speaker to compose, delivery may be slow (but not consistently disfluent); or message may be clear and expressed fluently, but vocab/syntax is somewhat basic; pronunciation/stress may need refining. Good listening comprehension. Has minimally adequate lexico-syntactic resources and fluency necessary for classroom communication and interaction, but requires support to identify weaknesses and improve in order to reach the next level of proficiency required for certification.

40

LIMITED Language resources/ability to communicate at a level necessary for classroom teaching is limited - Not ready for classroom teaching. Mix of 40 and 45 item scores, or majority 40 with a few 35s, if any.

Able to fulfill tasks, but weaknesses are obvious. Profiles vary: Consistent listener effort may be needed to follow message. Speaker may be occasionally unintelligible/ incomprehensible/ incoherent. Grammar and/or vocab resources may be limited. Message may be simplistic/ repetitive/unfocused/occasionally incorrect. Speaker may have to exert noticeable efforts to build sentences/argument or to articulate sounds. Despite all their shortcomings, these speakers are generally able to the message across, albeit a simple, incomplete, or vague one.

35

RESTRICTED Language resources or ability to communicate is RESTRICTED - Likely to need more than one semester of support. Mix of 35 and 40 item scores.

Listener may need to exert considerable effort to follow, or may not be able to follow. Profiles vary: Speaker may be more than occasionally unintelligible or incoherent OR may be restricted in several of these areas: fluency, vocabulary, grammar/syntax, listening comprehension, articulation/pronunciation, prosody (includes intonation, rhythm, stress), often resulting in difficult, frustrating or unsuccessful communication. May not be able to fulfill tasks.