Listening
Format: Timed - 50 minutes. Delivered on computer. Audio clips with pictures. Multiple choice questions.
Students should be able to understand - utterances about basic survival needs and minimum courtesy and travel requirements on very familiar topics; understand sentences with varied but familiar vocabulary; inadequate to understand anything but elementary needs, such as meals, lodging, transportation, time and simple directions; can get the main idea in familiar content areas.
Reading
Format: Timed - 50 minutes. Delivered on computer. Diverse reading material. Multiple choice questions.
Students should be able to- read very simple connected written material in a form equivalent to usual printing. Can read either representations of familiar formulaic verbal exchanges or simple language containing only the highest frequency structural patterns and vocabulary; read and understand known language elements that have been recombined in new ways to achieve different meanings at a similar level of simplicity. Texts may include descriptions of persons, places or things: and explanations of geography and government such as those simplified for tourists.
Writing
Format: Timed - 55 minutes. Written responses on paper.
Students should be able to control the writing system to meet very limited practical needs. Topics are simple, such as likes and dislikes, short descriptions, recounting of everyday events in a list-like manner.
Students should be able to write short messages, postcards, and take down simple notes such as telephone messages. They can create by writing statements and questions on topics very familiar to them, within the scope of their limited language experience.
Speaking
Format: 10 to 15 minute Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) with role-play. In-person interview.
Students should be able to create sentences; begin, maintain, and close very short conversations by asking and answering questions; satisfy very simple daily needs; satisfy minimum courtesy requirements and maintain very simple face-to-face conversations on very familiar topics such as personal history, daily schedule, leisure-time activities, and simple transactions.