1. What is the National Portuguese Examination?
By Débora Ferreira,
NPE Director

2. The NPE follows the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and Benchmarks.
The National Portuguese Examination (NPE) is an online test that engages students in listening, reading, and writing. It is intended for high school students of Portuguese.
The NPE is intended as a motivational, extra-curricular activity and contest for students of members of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese and its chapters. The NPE is not designed for any other purpose and should not be used for assessment, placement, or proficiency testing.
The NPE follows the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and Benchmarks.

3. Where are they coming from?
NH: 7
MA:215
IL:1
IN:4
NJ:83
RI: 55
OH: 7
NPE 2015
NC:1
NPE Students:
Where are they coming from?
AL:19
TX:1
FL:9
NPE 2016

4. Registrations 2012-2016 level 4: 2014: paper 2015: - 2016: online

5. NPE Exams taken,
per year, per level,

6. NPE 2017: Format: Percentages Awards ceremony more students rewarded
Achievement:
Vocabulary
Grammar
Performance:
Listening comprehension
Reading comprehension
Format:
more students rewarded
Percentages
Certificates
Teacher excellence
Honorable
Participation
Gold, silver, bronze
Medals available for purchase (pending)
Awards ceremony
NPE 2017:

7. Levels and categories:
Students compete among same level and category – that is, a Level 3 bilingual student won’t be compared with a Level 1 regular student.
Level 3 bilingual students are compared with other Level 3 bilingual students.

8. LEVELS: Levels ACTFL Benchmarks 1 Novice 2 Intermediate low 3
Intermediate mid 4
Intermediate mid, high 5
Not offered yet
Spiraling:
new levels may also return to previous levels, reinforcing and advancing them.
Sentences
Paragraphs
Words,lists
Self, personal needs and wants,
Immediate context: school, family, friends
Society, values,
work, technology,
opinions, probabilities, uncertain scenarios

9. Bilingual
Lives between languages: Family speaks the language, maybe was in an immersion program for many years and became bilingual, etc.
Outside experience
Previous experience puts student at an advantage: maybe lived abroad, maybe had additional schooling in foreign language, etc.
Regular
Learned language in classroom
CATEGORIES:
Properly identifying your students’ categories is crucial so a regular student will not be compared with a bilingual.
Therefore, each level will still be split into categories:
So, your student Mary may be Level 1, Regular, but Anna may be Level 1 Outside experience.
Level 1
Regular
Outside experience
Bilingual
Students compete among same level and category – that is, a Level 3 bilingual student won’t be compared with a Level 1 regular student.
Level 3 bilingual students are compared with other Level 3 bilingual students.

10. Examination Format: Parallel to NSE Uses Quia (online testing tool)
Verb conjugation per 2016 NPE Survey
Topics according to textbooks, ACTFL standards (from self, daily life to hypothesizing, special fields of interest)

11. Quia (online testing system) allows:
Achievement
(40min)
Vocabulary
Grammar
Proficiency
Listening
Reading
Quia (online testing system) allows:
Multiple Choice
Pop-up
Fill-in (verb conjugation)
Multiple Correct
True/False
Matching
Ordering

14. Sample questions from 2016 NPE:
Different levels:
Vocabulary;
Reading comprehension

19. I hope you’ll join us for the 2017 NPE!
Register at
See also: Frequently asked questions
Teachers become AATSP members $5