Ukrainian language proficiency test review

Abstract

The Ukrainian Language Proficiency (ULP) test, officially titled Exam of the level of mastery of the official language (Ispyt na riven’ volodinnya derzhavnoyu movoyu) is a new test launched in Summer 2021. The name of the test in Ukrainian, incidentally, does not contain the words “Ukrainian” or “foreign language.” According to the state regulations (Kabinet Ministriv Ukrayiny [KMU], 2021a; Natsional’na Komisiya zi Standartiv Derzhavnoyi Movy [NKSDM], 2021a, 2021b), the levels of mastery of Ukrainian in the test are aligned with the CEFR levels.1 The test was introduced as a product of the law about the official language of Ukraine, which mandated that civil servants and citizens who are being naturalized are fully able to use Ukrainian in performing their duties. The ULP test comprises two versions: (a) ULP for acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship (Ispyt na riven’ volodinnya derzhavnoyu movoyu (dlya nabuttya hromadyanstva)), and (b) ULP 2.0 for holding civil office (Ispyt na riven’ volodinnya derzhavnoyu movoyu 2.0 (dlya vykonannya sluzhbovyh obov’yazkiv)). To differentiate between the two versions of the test in this review, we will refer to the former version as ULP-C and to the latter version as ULP 2.0. The purpose of this review is to apply Kunnan’s (2018) fairness and justice framework to evaluate both ULP-C and ULP 2.0 since they are united by (a) the alignment with the CEFR scale which poses ULP 2.0 as a continuation of ULP-C, (b) the same