While students in the School of Foreign Service have the shared experience of preparing for language proficiency exams, the nature of the exams varies vastly from one language to another.

The SFS worked with language departments last year to standardize the goals and standards of proficiency exams to ensure students have grasped grammar, vocabulary and cultural understanding, according to SFS Associate Dean Emily Zenick, who oversees proficiency exams across departments.

“[Language tests] gauge two things. We care that the grammar’s right, that the vocabulary’s right and that students can understand the questions being asked of them and respond. So the linguistic competency is an important part,” Zenick said. “But the other part is the idea of cultural literacy.”Zenick explained that it’s not just a question of “Are you answering the question grammatically correctly?” but rather, “Do you have an understanding of the context in which the language is used?’”

The SFS describes a “pass” on the proficiency exams as comparable to achieving an intermediate-high to advanced-mid standing on the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages guidelines, or a B1/low B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference.

But departments are largely left on their own to administer the exams, and many discrepancies persist, according to students and faculty interviewed for this article.

Professors acknowledged that communication between departments regarding proficiency exams is minimal.

“We have not had much contact recently,” Interim Chair of the French Department Deborah LeskoBaker said. “I think that departments are in general agreement about what it takes to pass the exam, but we do not regularly communicate with all other departments about what their specific levels of preparation are.”

Italian professor Anna de Fina, who coordinates the Italian proficiency exams, said she would like to see more coordination among departments, though complete coordination would be difficult and undesirable.

“I don’t feel that there is a complete coordination among the different departments,’” De Fina said.  “On the other hand, I don’t know whether you can ask every department to have the same because departments have different traditions of teaching, different standardized tests that they rely on, I don’t know to what extent you could make the case for having exactly the same level, or the same kind of exam even.”

In most departments, students speak for 20 minutes with two professors about an article they read before the exam and are asked to summarize the main idea, give their opinion and answer questions posed by the test proctor. Students also answer questions on more familiar topics, such as their personal and family lives. However, these guidelines are far from universal across departments.

Students who take proficiency exams in Italian do not have to read an article, while students who take the Chinese exam are given three hours to do so, in contrast to only 20 hours for those taking the Spanish exam. Students in the German department prepare a five-minute presentation on German current events, along with a discussion of an article.

Students suggested that languages typically thought to be harder for English speakers to learn, such as Chinese and Arabic, have less demanding exams.

Yomna Sarhan (SFS ’14), who passed both the Arabic and French proficiency exams, said the French exam was significantly more challenging.

“In the Arabic one, I was asked about my family, my hobbies and my favorite classes. It was much more conversational, while the French one was strictly about the assigned article and French domestic policy,” she said. “It seems that since Arabic is a harder language, the proficiency exam is less rigorous — the goal is just to get you to talk about yourself and your life. The French one, I found, was much more difficult and demanding.”

Juman Khweis (SFS ’13), who grew up speaking Palestinian Arabic and studied modern standard Arabic for three years at Georgetown, said she was surprised by the format of the language’s exam.

“They don’t test your writing skills and they ask you pretty basic questions about the article. My overall impression was that they just asked pretty simple questions so if you just remembered the vocabulary from your first semester of Arabic you would do a good job,” she said.

Rui Hao Puah (SFS ’16), who learned Chinese as part of his bilingual education in Singapore, said the Chinese proficiency exam was also fairly basic.

“The proficiency test is too easy,” he said. “Even after passing the test I don’t feel comfortable living in China and working there. I don’t feel proficient at all.”

For those who study more common European languages, the proficiency exam is a different experience.

“The French proficiency exam, at least, ensures that you are able to function in higher-level academic discussion and analysis of current events,” Allie Van Dine (SFS ’14), who passed her French exam, said. “I would say that it was a great measurement of my language skills, because it not only combined my ability to speak and read, but also analyze within the language and employ traditionally French frameworks for that analysis.”

Exams may also vary within departments, depending on instructors and subject discussed in assigned articles.

“It’s different teachers, it’s not the same and the passages are different. Every test has a different passage,” Puah said. “It depends on the teacher. You might get a lenient teacher, but generally the standards are the same.”