Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AP Chinese Language
®
and Culture
Scoring Guidelines
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AP® CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
2020 SCORING GUIDELINES
Interpersonal Speaking: Conversation
6 EXCELLENT • Directly addresses prompts • Natural pace and intonation with • Rich and appropriate vocabulary
Demonstrates and provides very thorough minimal hesitation or repetition and idioms with minimal errors
excellence in and appropriate responses; • Accurate pronunciation (including • Wide range of grammatical
interpersonal includes elaboration and tones), with minimal errors structures with minimal errors
speaking detail • Consistent use of register
• Maintains the conversation appropriate to situation
with a series of responses
that is highly appropriate
within the context of the task
5 VERY GOOD • Directly addresses prompts and • Smooth pace and intonation with • Appropriate vocabulary and
Suggests provides thorough and occasional hesitation and repetition idioms with sporadic errors
excellence in appropriate responses; includes • Occasional errors in pronunciation • Variety of grammatical structures
interpersonal some elaboration and detail (including tones) with sporadic errors
• Maintains the conversation with
speaking • Consistent use of register
a series of responses that is
clearly appropriate within the appropriate to situation except for
context of the task occasional lapses
4 GOOD • Directly addresses prompts • Generally consistent pace and • Mostly appropriate vocabulary
Demonstrates • Maintains the conversation intonation with intermittent and idioms with errors that do
competence in with a series of responses that hesitation and repetition not generally obscure meaning
interpersonal is appropriate within the • May have several errors in • Mostly appropriate grammatical
speaking context of the task pronunciation (including tones), structures with errors that do not
which do not necessitate special generally obscure meaning
listener effort
• May include several lapses in
otherwise consistent use of register
appropriate to situation
3 ADEQUATE • Directly addresses most • Inconsistent pace and intonation • Limited appropriate vocabulary
Suggests prompts with hesitation and repetition that and idioms with frequent errors
competence in • Maintains the conversation interfere with comprehension that sometimes obscure meaning;
interpersonal with a series of responses • Errors in pronunciation (including intermittent interference from
speaking that is basic but tones) sometimes necessitate another language
appropriate within the special listener effort • Mostly simple grammatical
context of the task • Use of register appropriate to structures with frequent errors
situation is inconsistent or includes that sometimes obscure meaning
many errors
2 WEAK • Directly addresses some • Labored pace and intonation with • Minimal appropriate vocabulary
Suggests lack prompts frequent hesitation and repetition with frequent errors that obscure
• Partially maintains the meaning; repeated interference
of competence • Frequent errors in pronunciation
conversation with a series of
in interpersonal (including tones) necessitate from another language
responses that is appropriate
speaking but incomplete within the constant listener effort • Limited grammatical structures
context of the task • Frequent use of register with frequent errors that obscure
inappropriate to situation meaning
1 VERY WEAK • Addresses prompts minimally • Very labored pace and intonation • Insufficient, inappropriate
Demonstrates or marginally with constant hesitation and vocabulary with frequent errors
lack of • Unsuccessfully attempts to repetition that significantly obscure
competence in maintain the conversation • Frequent errors in pronunciation meaning; constant interference
interpersonal with responses that are (including tones) necessitate from another language
speaking inappropriate within the intense listener effort • Little or no control of
context of the task • Constant use of register grammatical structures with
inappropriate to situation frequent errors that significantly
obscure meaning
0 UNACCEPTABLE • Mere restatement of language from the prompts
Contains • Clearly does not respond to the prompts; completely irrelevant to the topic
nothing that • “I don’t know,” “I don’t understand” or equivalent in English or Mandarin Chinese
earns credit • Clearly responds to the prompts in English
• Blank (although recording equipment is functioning) or mere sighs