Component

Time

Description

Sample Questions

Warm-Up

5 min.

Questions about contact information (i.e., address, email) and personal life (e.g., hobbies)

How do you like Bloomington so far?

Field of Study

5 min.

Questions about the interviewee’s research interests with follow-up questions

Tell us about your research interests.

Future Direction

5 min.

Questions about future and hypothetical situations

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Evaluation Criteria

Aural Proficiency

Question comprehension and appropriate response

Pronunciation

Comprehensibility at the level of consonants, vowels, intonation, word stress, and enunciation

Language

Grammar and vocabulary

Communicative and Organizational Strategies

Arguments and explanations with appropriate examples and reasons at paragraph-level discourse, and awareness of listener

Fluency

Appropriate speed, pauses, and intonation

Level

Decision

Descriptors

C2

Approved

Although not native-like, the speaker can handle any communicative situation which presents itself; intonation and pronunciation, although non-native, do not impede understanding; grammar and vocabulary are sophisticated, with only occasional errors; communication breakdowns are easily overcome through repair strategies.

C3

Approved with reservations

The speaker, although non-native in intonation and pronunciation, is yet able to negotiate any topic with minimal difficulty; grammar and vocabulary are adequate, although less sophisticated than C2, the speaker uses a variety of communicative strategies to overcome deficiencies in other areas; the speaker may have occasional communication breakdowns, but can successfully employ appropriate repair strategies.

NC4

Review / Minor language training needed

Some or all of the criteria in the categories listed above are inadequate; intonation and pronunciation are impediments to comprehension; grammar and vocabulary are rudimentary; a halting presentation style shows difficulty in accessing aspects of language structure; a speeded up style indicates lack of awareness of prosodic elements (grammatical constructions, discourse features such as question and statement intonation, etc.); inappropriate response shows lack of comprehension on the speakers' part; the speaker lacks repair strategies to negotiate communication breakdowns.

NC5

Extensive language training required

Communication is difficult because of severe problems in some or all of the areas listed in NC4. Pronunciation, intonation, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension may all show problems significant enough to render understanding problematic; communication strategies, even if present, cannot compensate for the severity of deficiencies. an interviewee who receives NC5 was probably not prepared for participation in this test and may need significant training time in order to successfully complete it.