L&U Intmd. and Adv.: Exam Specifications

Language and Use exams (Intermediate / Advanced) test rationale and specifications

Exam format, purpose, and test construct

The Language and Use (L&U) Intermediate and Advanced exams are traditional paper-and-pencil language tests used to assess students’ receptive and productive knowledge of the system of English—i.e. its grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation—and their receptive understanding of written texts. The L&U exams do not test students’ speaking, writing, and listening skills as these are tested in other courses in the department’s Sprachpraxis section. Receptive tasks generally include reading comprehension exercises such as, but not limited to, true/false questions, short-answer questions, multiple-choice questions, and tasks that require students to supply missing chunks from a list of options. Students’ productive knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is tested on the basis of a variety of tasks such as, but not limited to, gap-fill exercises, multiple-choice questions, and re-writing tasks. Tasks may also test a mixture of receptive and productive knowledge of English. These include, but are not limited to, indirect pronunciation exercises, synonym/paraphrasing exercises, and tasks that require students to identify mistakes typically made by learners of English.

The Language and Use exams are proficiency exams that test whether students have reached the required level of English according to the Common European Framework of Reference for language. The required level to pass Language and Use Intermediate is roughly equivalent to C1; for Language and Use Advanced it is C2. Please see here and here for the CEFR descriptors. In line with CEFR levels C1 and C2, the majority of tasks in the L&U exams are based on authentic texts and designed with a clear communicative purpose in mind. Tasks that measure students’ knowledge of vocabulary come in a variety of formats and are designed in such a way that they test both vocabulary breadth and depth.[1] The texts chosen for the tasks are taken from English-speaking sources including books, newspapers, and scientific journals. Texts are generally left unaltered but footnotes are provided where necessary.[2] No specialised knowledge is required to complete the tasks.

The grammar and vocabulary tested at L&U Intermediate level will generally not exceed CEFR level C1. The following tools are used to assess the level of test items:

• Grammar: English Grammar Profile Online
• Vocabulary: OED frequency bands and Pearson GSE Vocabulary Toolkit

Please note that, whilst all care is taken to ensure that level C1 is not exceeded in any of the tasks, aligning grammar and vocabulary with precise CEFR levels is not always possible. At L&U Advanced level, the grammar and vocabulary tested may include anything up to level C2. This means that students are expected to demonstrate the ability to understand with ease texts from any field, including specialised language. They are also required to be able to express themselves very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations. These requirements are tested in the above-mentioned tasks. For further information on the relevant qualitative factors for receptive and productive knowledge of English at levels C1 and C2, please refer to this document.

Whilst the tasks outlined above require students to demonstrate their individual language proficiency as supported by and practised in the Language Courses (I, II, and IV), the Language and Use exams also include achievement components that directly assess content taught in these courses. These include, but are not limited to, tasks that measure students’ knowledge of various aspects syntax (parts of speech / word classes and grammatical function). The reason why these tasks are included in the L&U exams is that they form a vital part of any English-language programme, and it is essential that students are familiar with them in order to be successful in other sections of the department and/or their future professional lives (as, e.g., teachers of English).

Test specifications, grading, and validity

The Language and Use exams are three-hour written exams (for L&U Advanced this includes the LC III part of the exam) graded on a 100-to-125-point scale (the LC III component of the L&U Advanced exam carries an additional 25 points). Exam papers are anonymised to prevent unconscious bias. Students are not permitted to use any resources while taking the exam. Any attempt to cheat and/or gain an unfair advantage is dealt with according to official university policy. See here for further information.

The exams are graded by members of staff of the English department and responses are assessed on the basis of correctness and idiomaticity. Multiple-choice questions, true/false questions, and “insert the missing chunk” tasks have a single correct answer. Other tasks, such as gap-fill exercises, might have a number of acceptable answers. Full points are always given to any correct and idiomatic answer. In cases where an answer may be correct but deemed to be non-idiomatic, half points are sometimes given. Final judgement on whether an answer is correct lies with the department.

A norm-referenced framework is used to measure a cohort’s performance in each Language and Use exam. This is based on the assumption that there is little variation in the performance of exam-taking cohorts and that exam scores will be evenly distributed across each cohort. The threshold for passing the exams is set at 60% of correct answers. The assumption is that 60% of correct answers are required to demonstrate, respectively, C1 and C2-level English.

Due to the subjective nature of the level of difficulty of authentic materials, scaling is sometimes used to allow for perceived level of difficulty. In order to ensure that the academic standards achieved by a cohort are equivalent to previous cohorts, the department reserves the right to adjust (up or down) the passing threshold of 60% if it becomes apparent that results deviate from normal distribution.

The Language and Use exams require test-takers to integrate grammatical, lexical, pragmatic, and contextual knowledge and to use this knowledge to produce and understand meaning in context. This type of testing allows members of staff in the department to make accurate inferences about candidates’ level of English. All care is taken to ensure high test validity, i.e., that interpretations of results are defensible and fair at all times. Sample test papers are available for practice purposes, and students have the option to view their completed exam papers by requesting Akteneinsicht with the Prüfungssekretariat der Philosophischen Fakultät. Due to the high-stakes nature of the Language and Use exams, students are allowed three attempts for each of the exams and an alternative form of assessment[3] is possible for those facing their third attempt.

Mapping of exam tasks onto CEFR

The table below shows how some of the tasks typically used in the Language and Use exams are mapped onto the CEFR.

[1] Broadly speaking, breadth refers to the size of a learner’s vocabulary; depth refers to the knowledge a learner has about individual lexical items. These include, amongst other things, knowledge of use, range of meanings, and all the many collocations a word is used in.

[2] For example, if the texts contain references that require specialised knowledge (e.g. cultural or scientific).

[3] Cambridge C1 (instead of L&U Intermediate) or C2 (instead of L&U Advanced) plus a reduced version of the respective Language and Use exam. Further conditions apply. See here and here for more information.