This year’s FLACS exams will be administered on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
You must be a NYSAWLA member in good standing prior to the membership deadline of March 1, 2023, in order to have access to this year’s exams.
FLACS exams will make a gradual shift towards reflecting the new NYS Learning Standards for World Languages. It will begin with a major change in the “Speaking” section and minor changes in the number of items in other sections. Over the next few years, each part of the FLACS exams will be reviewed and modified according to the new standards.
Below is a link to our newly revised Interpersonal and Presentational Speaking Tasks Administration Guidelines. This booklet provides specific information on how to administer the speaking portion of the FLACS exam. It also contains examples of items with scoring explanations.
We ask that you read the guidelines carefully, as there are some major changes to how the interpersonal and presentational speaking task booklets are to be used. ALL items in our speaking task booklets may be used for either practice or as secure testing items. It will be up to individual districts to decide which and how many items from each theme will be used for testing purposes. Once secure testing items are selected, districts may then use the other items as practice throughout the year.
Secure Speaking task booklets have been released to current members of NYSAWLA. If you have not received them, check your membership status in your account. If you are a current (or pending) member, then the email may have landed in your junk email folder! Please take us out of “junk” by asking your IT Department to whitelist @nysawla.org and nysawla@gmail.com.
Below are links to our new rubrics that will be used to score the presentational and interpersonal speaking tasks on the FLACS exams. Practice booklets are forthcoming. Thank you for your patience.
NYS delineates two (2) categories of modern languages based on the time needed for English speakers to develop proficiency.
Category 1 and 2 modern languages include those that use a Roman-based alphabet (e.g., Spanish, French, German, Italian, Swahili).
Category 3 and 4 modern languages include indigenous languages (e.g., Seneca, Tuscarora), those languages that are character-based (e.g., Japanese, Korean, Mandarin), and those that use non-Roman-based alphabets(e.g., Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Russian).
Our major shift this year is with the Speaking section. We are moving from an utterance-based points tally to a rubric-based evaluation of two types of tasks — a presentational task (new this year) and two interpersonal tasks (similar to last year)
This section will essentially remain the same, with minor changes in the number of items. It is IMPORTANT to note that NYSAWLA will NOT be providing an audio recording this year. A listening script will be made available early enough for districts to make their own recordings, if they so choose.
This section will essentially remain the same, with minor changes in the number of items. We will begin a shift towards a focus on culture in this section.
This section will essentially remain the same, with no changes in the number of items or point values.
Part 1: Presentational/Interpersonal Speaking (30 points)
1 presentational task
2 interpersonal tasks
Part 2: Interpretive Listening (20 points)
2-a — 4 items – passages in target language, question in English
2-b — 2 items – passages in target language, question in target language
2-c — 2 passages, with 2 questions each, in English
Part 3: Interpretive Reading 30 points
3-a — 8 items – short readings or ads in target language, multiple choice items in English
3-b — 7 items – short readings or ads in target language, multiple choice items in target language
Part 4: Presentational/Interpretive Writing 20 points
4-a — Read to Write – students use two documents to develop and write about a given topic (50 word minimum)
4-b — Select one of two writing prompts (50 word minimum)
Part 1: Presentational/Interpersonal Speaking 30 points
1 presentational task
2 interpersonal tasks
Part 2: Interpretive Listening 20 points
2-a — 5 items – passages in target language, questions in English
2-b — 5 items – passages in target language, questions in target language
Part 3: Interpretive Reading 30 points
3-a — 6 items – short readings or ads in target language, multiple choice items in English
3-b — 4 items – short readings or ads in target language, multiple choice items in target language
3-c — 5 items – one passage in target language, 5 multiple choice items in English
Part 4: Presentational/Interpretive Writing 20 points
4-a — Read to Write – students use two documents to develop and write about a given topic (100 word minimum)
4-b — Select one of two writing prompts (100 word minimum)
Part 1: Expressive Skills (Interpersonal & Presentational) – 30 pts
2 Interpersonal tasks
1 presentational task
Part 2: Receptive Skills (Interpretive) – 20 points
2-a — 3 signed stories with 2 signed questions each
2-b — 2 signed stories with 2 written questions each
Part 3: Comprehension (Interpretive) – 30 points
Multiple Choice Video Comprehension Questions related to culture, history, syntax/structure or NYS themes and topics appropriate for Checkpoint A (15 questions total)
Part 4: Expressive Skills (Presentational) – 20 points
Two See-to-Sign Items — Students use a video and document/mixed media to develop and record a signed response about a given topic – 10 pts each
As documents are revised and updated, they will be uploaded here.
For any questions, comments, accolades or otherwise regarding the June 2023 FLACS exams, please click on the button below.
***We ask that you refrain from phoning and emailing your questions to us, as we will be hard at work preparing for our new exams this year. We WILL monitor this form, though, and will respond as quickly as possible to all entries.***