Vol 1, No 1 (2019)

Today language studies are one of the most popular international practices, both for everyday purposes and academic reasons. That is why development and implementation of reliable tools and methods for testing and assessment of language proficiency have become an important goal for instructors and linguists across the globe. To promote a universal understanding of the concepts in this area of knowledge there should exist a comprehensive terminology system of testing and assessment. Borrowing of terms from a more developed terminology system has become a common practice, but whether it always brings satisfactory results remains to be seen. This research paper aims at describing the techniques of integrating English language testing and assessment terms into Russian. In order to establish those techniques we conducted the comparative analysis of the most frequently used English terms on language testing and assessment based on their appearance in specialized texts on the subject and their Russian equivalents. The analysis procedure involved examining the phonetic and orthographic form, definitions and contextual usage of both the original terms and their equivalent borrowed into Russian language. Based on that, we can point out the most productive ways of transferring these terms into Russian, in particular, using calques, half-calques and transformational translation. Those methods prove to be effective in terms of securing the transparency of the meaning and providing a universal understanding of the concepts behind the terms which is necessary for successful communication of the experts in the field on international level and development of valid testing instruments. Nevertheless, integration of some terms is less successful due to the significant discrepancies in meaning between the original and borrowed terms leading to misunderstanding and potentially faulty testing and assessment practices. Therefore, the subject matter of borrowing terms in the abovementioned area shall be addressed in a more thorough fashion, and there should be more studies conducted on this issue. 

The research focuses on the problem of acceptability of applicants with the minimal level of the Unified State Exam (the USE) to teacher training programs, and coinage of language teachers with under-developed language competency, the latter being fated to turn insufficient for preparing school students for the USE. In the article the author answers the following two research questions: what level of language competency should be demonstrated by a teacher who works in a Russian regular secondary school; what the initial level of language mastery of applicants of teacher training programmes, measured with the USE and demonstrated with its results, would be adequate for them to be academically and linguistically agile for passing the exam which is known as the Certificate in Advanced English (CAE). The methods of the research included the content analysis of official documents regulating the requirements towards teacher competency and examination procedures and assessment; longitudinal observations on language competency development (330 students were observed throughout six years); comparative analysis of examination results. The outcomes of this research may be of high value to teacher training institutions in terms of the determination of categories of programme applicants who have stronger or weaker chances to graduate as competent (job market relevant) teachers.