The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2022 - 41

CF
Reading Level: The source
text's sentence structure and
higher-level organization
should correspond to Level
3 as described by the U.S.
government's Interagency
Language Roundtable in its
scale for reading proficiency.1
In more concrete terms,
the passage should present
a clear and coherent
progression of thought
and reasoning in which
the candidate must follow
an argument or supported
opinion and possibly
author inference. Texts that
present straightforward
factual material are
generally too easy,
while highly specialized,
esoteric, or stylistically
idiosyncratic pieces
are considered unduly
difficult for candidates
under exam conditions.
Typical examples of
English-language texts
at the appropriate level
are editorials in national
newspapers, or articles
in magazines aimed at an
educated audience. More
technical or academic
material may also be used
if adequate context is
provided within the passage.
Even passages that meet
the above criteria can be
rejected for other reasons.
For example, the source
text may be too easily
recognizable (e.g., Abraham
Lincoln's Gettysburg
Address or Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.'s " I Have a Dream "
speech). Or the text may
be available on a bilingual
or multilingual website
that includes the language
being tested (e.g., the BBC
World Service publishes
news coverage in dozens of
www.ata-chronicle.online
languages). Similarly, if it
turns out that the text was
not originally written in the
selected source language-
let's say an online piece in
English is actually a welltranslated
article from
Agence France Presse-it's
automatically ruled out as an
exam passage.
With these criteria in
mind, let's look at the steps
for converting a raw text into
an approved exam passage.
Initial Sourcing and
Counterpart Review
Once a group of graders has
found a text that satisfies
the specified criteria, it's
edited for length, and some
recasting of sentences may
be done to eliminate unfair
challenges or introduce
desirable elements, but
without distorting the style
and tone of the original
text. In other words, most
passages are authentic-
taken " from the wild, "
so to speak-but they are
typically modified to some
degree to make them more
suitable for exam purposes.
All graders in the workgroup
then decide whether a
passage is worth pursuing.
If it is, then it undergoes
counterpart review. This
means the prospective
passage is sent to the
language chair or another
grader from the counterpart
group (i.e., a native speaker
of the source language), who
checks the text for possible
usage or spelling errors and
confirms that the text is
authentic (mainly that it's
not itself a translation).
Sample Translations
and PSTF Review
Once a passage is cleared by
the counterpart group, one
or more graders prepare a
sample translation of the text,
working under actual exam
conditions (i.e., using allowed
resources and adhering to
the time limit) to further
assess the text's suitability.
If any unfair challenges or
other problems are identified
and the workgroup wishes to
alter the text, the counterpart
group is again consulted.
Once the final text is decided
on, the workgroup completes
the passage selection form
(PSF), which contains
the source text, a sample
translation, and lists at least
three challenges at the word
level and three challenges
at the sentence level. These
challenges must be described
in English for the reviewer,
a fellow grader serving as
a member of the Passage
Selection Task Force (PSTF),
who doesn't necessarily know
the other language.
The PSTF reviewer's task is
to confirm that the proposed
passage satisfies programwide
standards for passages
and that the challenges are
articulated adequately. The
reviewer may go back to the
workgroup with questions
or proposed tweaks. Once
the passage is approved, it's
added to the workgroup's
queue of passages for future
use, which is maintained
by Certification Program
Manager Caron Bailey. At
this point, any graders who
haven't already done so
prepare a sample translation
of the passage under actual
exam conditions. The aim here
is to identify problems that
Each grader
workgroup is
also required
to develop
languagespecific
guidelines,
consisting
of
common
challenges for
translators in
their language
pair and
direction.
American Translators Association 41
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