The CILS Exam is an official certificate, recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which confirms linguistic-communicative competencies in Italian L2. The CILS exams are structured in six levels which mirror the levels proposed by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
The target candidates of the diversified modules created by CILS are those adults who study or who teach Italian abroad, foreign adults who want to integrate themselves and work in Italy, children, adolescents, and youth who attend school or university in Italy or abroad. Each candidate may prepare him/herself in the most opportune way. Specific academic qualifications are not required, but only a competency in Italian language corresponding to the parameters indicated by each level of the CEFR.

 

Siena Italtech offers the service of assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies for Italian L2 implementing criteria for assessment of abilities and the various types of production, and the relative modalities of attribution of scores for all exams, as developed by the CILS Centre.
In open productions, the criteria taken into consideration for assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies are: communicative efficacy, register/stylistic appropriateness of style (appropriateness of register and of linguistic variety in the oral test), appropriateness of content, morphosyntactic correctness, appropriateness and richness of lexicon, spelling, punctuation, (pronunciation and intonation in oral tests). The decision to assess both written and oral production in a centralised manner, in close collaboration with the the CILS centre, is a guarantee of reliability for candidates. 
Test-takers thus receive a uniform treatment and a reliable, competent assessment..
The written exams are assessed after having scanned the written papers and having uploaded the scans onto an online platform that allows the assessors to work independently. In the same way, the oral exams are recorded in mp3 format and uploaded onto the same platform for assessment.

 

Assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies is handled by assessors whose professional development is continually updated, in Italy and abroad. Consultation meetings with the CILS Centre, onsite or via web, are opportunities for sharing and collective reflection for assessors and are repeated before the start of each new assessment session, with the scope of insuring a procedure of standardisation of evaluation and to reach a final, overall assessment which is consistent, coherent, and reliable through shared discussion.
Each assessor works independently after the stage of standardisation of evaluation, but has the opportunity to touch base with the CILS Centre about specific tests whose evaluation may raise critical issues.
All assessors have spent time as observers and as interns at the CILS Centre and attend training courses to share the procedures and parameters of assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies; furthermore they continually refer to the CILS guidelines, along with the grids geared to each level of CILS exams for the assigning of scores for the individual linguistic abilities.

Teamwork, coherence, collaboration, experience and discussion of criteria and choices are the cornerstones that ensure an assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies as valid and reliable as possible.

The expertise of Siena Italtech in assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies may also be extended to other certification exams of Italian L2, as well as to entities and figures that require a reliable, valid process of assessment of linguistic-communicative competencies for Italian L2 in the areas of school, university, training, professional development, and for all other fields.