Test Information Guide

Field 31: Russian
Linguistics and Language Structures

The following materials contain:

Sample Test Directions for the Linguistics and Language Structures Assignments

Part 1: Passage

This portion of the Linguistics and Language Structures section of the test consists of a passage to be completed by providing the grammatically correct word in the target language for each numbered space. Directions are provided before the passage. Write your responses on one of the response sheets provided to you. Before you continue, please label the response sheet "Linguistics and Language Structures Passage".

You may use the erasable notebooklet to make notes, write an outline, or otherwise prepare your responses. However, your final responses to the passage must be written on one of the response sheets provided.

Your final response must be scanned using the scanner provided at your workstation. Instructions for scanning your Response Sheet are available by clicking the "Scanning Help" button at the top of the screen.

Any time spent responding to the assignment, including scanning the response sheet(s), is part of your testing time. Monitor your time carefully. When your testing time expires, a pop-up message will appear on-screen indicating the conclusion of your test session. Only response sheets that are scanned before you end your test or before time has expired will be scored. Any response sheet that is not scanned before testing ends will NOT be scored.

Select the Next button to continue.

Part 2: Short-Answer Questions

This portion of the Linguistics and Language Structures section of the test consists of six short answer questions. Directions are provided before each question. Write your response to each question on one of the response sheets provided to you. Before you continue, please label your response sheets with the appropriate exercise numbers as follows.

  1. "Exercise 1"
  2. "Exercise 2"
  3. "Exercise 3"
  4. "Exercise 4"
  5. "Exercise 5"
  6. "Exercise 6"

You may use the erasable notebooklet to make notes, write an outline, or otherwise prepare your response to the exercises. However, your final responses to the exercises must be written on the response sheets provided.

Your final response must be scanned using the scanner provided at your workstation. Instructions for scanning your Response Sheets are available by clicking the "Scanning Help" button at the top of the screen.

Any time spent responding to the assignments, including scanning the response sheet(s), is part of your testing time. Monitor your time carefully. When your testing time expires, a pop-up message will appear on-screen indicating the conclusion of your test session. Only response sheets that are scanned before you end your test or before time has expired will be scored. Any response sheet that is not scanned before testing ends will NOT be scored.

Select the Next button to continue.

Description of the Linguistics and Language Structures Open-Response Items

This section of the test consists of exercises that require the candidate to demonstrate command of the grammatical structure of the language. The first part consists of a cloze passage with twelve blanks to be filled in according to specific directions. The words or phrases to be filled in may include verb forms, pronouns, modifiers requiring agreement, inflected noun forms, or other important elements of syntax and usage. The second part consists of six short-answer questions. The first three require transformation of one or more sentences according to specific directions (e.g., from one tense or voice to another, from singular to plural, or from an informal to a formal language style). The second three short-answer questions require candidates to rewrite in correct form one or more sentences containing grammatical errors. In the scoring of this section of the test, all grammatically correct answers consistent with the directions will be accepted.

Sample questions are provided in the Russian sample items PDF.

Scoring Rubric

Performance Characteristics

The following characteristics guide the scoring of responses to the linguistics and language structures assignments.

Table outlining performance characteristics.
Grammar 12 tasks that require supplying the grammatically correct term
Transformation 3 tasks that require making a specified transformation
Correction 3 tasks that require correction of errors

Scoring Scale

Each identified scorable task will be "Correct" if the candidate's response is described by one of the following:

Score Scale with description for each score point.
Tasks Notation Notation Description
Grammar:
Tasks 1–12		 C Correct.

The candidate's response is grammatically correct and appropriate within the context of the passage (i.e., the response satisfies all of the target language's rules of grammar demanded by the instructions and intended by the context of the passage).
Transformation:
Tasks 13–15		 C Correct.

The candidate's response correctly transforms the sentence or passage as instructed (i.e., the response follows all applicable grammatical rules of the target language and accurately supplies a transformed word, phrase, or clause construction as directed).
Correction:
Tasks 16–18		 C Correct.

The candidate's response acceptably corrects the syntactic or linguistic errors found in the sentence or passage (i.e., the response has located and corrected the errors of language structure found within the sentence or passage and has retained the original meaning).

Each identified scorable task will be "Not Correct" if the candidate's response is described by the following:

Table outlining scoring scale for not correct response.
Tasks Notation Notation Description
All Tasks NC Not correct.

The candidate's response does not accurately follow the target language's rules of grammar, or the response is incomplete or is blank.