Welcome letter and Instructor biography

Tatiana Derugo,

Instructor

Welcome to Prototype AP Russian class! I am looking forward to working with each of you as the semester proceeds. You will be learning essential techniques for passing successfully all 4 sections of AP Russian: oral interview, multiple choice reading comprehension, writing and listening. Let me tell you a little bit about myself by sharing part of my resume:

Education

St. Petersburg State Conservatory, St. Petersburg, Russia.

MA in acting and directing.

Belarus State University, Belarus.

MA in Russian language and literature.

Teaching

Brookdale Community College, 2013- present.

Schoolplus – 2013- present

Professional Development

Teaching online professional certificate – November 2018, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ

SEELRC Summer Institute on Slavic & Eurasian Language Pedagogy, Research & Testing – July 2018, Duke University

CEFR/TRKI Russian Proficiency Testing – July 2018, Duke University (Certified Testor)

Startalk teaching Russian courses – 2015, 2017- Alexandria, Maryland

ACTR Prototype AP Russian teaching certification - September 2013, Washington DC

I am married and have 2 children; one is in college now and another in 5^th grade. I like bicycling, reading, listening and playing classical music, and explore and photograph various buildings through architectural walks. One of the styles I am sightseeing now is American Art Deco.

https://www.americancouncils.org/services/testing-and-assessment/NEWL/russian

The NEWL (Prototype AP):

Russian test is intended for secondary school students of Russian language who wish to engage in rigorous university-level study before high school graduation. The Prototype AP Russian Language and Culture course is designed to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an upper-intermediate (approximately second year) college-level Russian language course. Both traditional and heritage learners1 are encouraged to take the Prototype AP Russian Language and Culture course, a standards-oriented, proficiency-based course designed for students at Intermediate High to Advanced Low on ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) scale.2 Such a course enriches students of all backgrounds in understanding Russian culture and furthering language proficiency. At the completion of the course, students are encouraged to take the Prototype AP Russian Language and Culture Exam. The exam is designed to provide a set of measures of functional proficiency in Russian for use as a predictive assessment for continued language study beyond high school and as a placement tool by American colleges and universities for entering freshmen with prior study of Russian.3

With its focus on proficiency, the Prototype AP Russian Examination is largely independent of any specific Russian curriculum in measuring student performances. It addresses the question, “How well do students perform in the language?” Test specifications reflect The College Board World Languages Framework and the proficiency guidelines developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Test items are based on the tasks, skill domains, and performance indicators published in the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (W-RSLL).4 The World-Readiness Standards and the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners represent some of the best current thinking among second language specialists on how well students should perform in a language (other than English), taking into account the student’s particular stage in the learning process and the relative difficulty of the target language.

Consistent with the World-Readiness Standards for Russian, performance targets are presented at different proficiency levels in three modes of communication (presentational, interpretive, and interpersonal) and six domains (comprehensibility, comprehension, language control, vocabulary, cultural awareness, and communication strategies).

The NEWL (Prototype AP ) Russian Examination is an Internet-distributed linear test lasting about 3 hours for administration

PRACTICE TEST TASKS AND TOPICS BY FORM AND MODE

• Before experiencing AAPPL Measure, run the AAPPL Measure System Check on your computer
• All components require headphones or speakers
• For the ILS component, you will need a microphone
• For the PW component, you will need to change your keyboard to match the language in which you wish to write. You can use the same computer setting that is used for learning keyboarding skills in the target language
• Your responses will not be stored or recorded
• To start an assessment, simply click on the "Sign In" button on the student login page to begin, you do not need a login or password
• If you quit and restart, you will return to the beginning, unlike the operational assessment
• Form A contains Novice- and Intermediate-level tasks and Form B contains Intermediate- and Advanced-level tasks
• The Arabic ILS has two versions depending if the test-taker is male or female
• The ESL demonstration versions contain fewer tasks than the operational versions, and the ESL ILS demo sampler version contains tasks at all levels

THE RUSSIAN EXAM CONSTRUCT

The Prototype AP Russian examination consists of four subtests, all of which are aimed at the direct assessment of functional proficiency within interpersonal, interpretive, presentational modes of communication, based on authentic speech samples.

The four sections of the exam are:
• Reading Comprehension (60 minutes)
• Listening Comprehension (45 minutes)
• Integrated Written Communication (IWC) (70 minutes)
• Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) (15-25 minutes)

Each of the exam sections contribute equally to the overall final Prototype AP grade. The Prototype AP Russian Examination targets language skills at levels of difficulty that are appropriate for American second language learners of Russian, beginning with Novice High through Intermediate High levels.

Reading Comprehension:

The reading comprehension section consists of short, authentic texts followed by one to three multiple-choice questions in English. Text types are varied and include a formatted layout, such as announcements, schedules, and brochures, as well as paragraph length. The topics range from personal information, basic needs, social conventions, and routine tasks, to formal announcements, pamphlets, etc., and to more advanced topics with lengthier prose text. Topics are those that will be of interest to high school students taking the exam and address both the interpersonal and interpretive modes of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning and are in keeping with the Fairness and Equity guidelines as put forth by Educational Testing Services.

Listening Comprehension:

Also a multiple-choice section, the listening comprehension closely parallels that of the reading comprehension section. Authentic spoken stimulus passages may include oral texts, conversations, announcements, radio clips or reports. In listening comprehension, the test-taker functions in several different roles, depending on the audio stimulus. For example, the test-taker may function as an over-hearer of a conversation or monologue, or may function as the addressee, if the audio is addressed to the test taker. Again, topics range from personal information, basic needs, social conventions, and routine tasks to formal announcements and reports over the media, to more advanced topics with extended discourse, such as interviews, short lectures, and news items. Similar to reading, topics will be of interest to the high school test-taker, and topics address the interpersonal and interpretive modes of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning, while keeping with the Fairness and Equity guidelines as put forth by Educational Testing Service.

Integrated Written Communication (IWC):

The Integrated Written Communication (IWC) section of the exam is meant to assess the students’ overall language abilities across three skills. The goal is not the accumulation of facts in isolation, but rather the integration of knowledge and abilities in order to put their proficiency to use in a wider context. The writing section of the exam consists of Integrated Tasks.

Integrated Tasks:

The integrated tasks portion of the exam is "intermodal" and it requires students to function in more than one skill in order to work through a real-life situation. The test-takers are given two scenarios, each having two prompts (listening audio and reading passage), with each prompt requiring an extended written response. For example, a scenario might begin with an e-mail text (reading), requiring a written response, followed by a voice mail message (listening), requiring another written response, with the combination creating a contextualized situation. The information that test-takers use to compose their response(s) is provided in the listening and reading texts, and students have a choice of keyboard layout (phonetic or standard) for their Russian fonts. Students are instructed in English as to what the written task entails. Both the interpersonal and presentational modes of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning are addressed in this section of the test.

The Prototype Advanced Placement (AP)®