How to design language tests for citizenship

How to design language tests for citizenship(ˈsidizənˌSHip)

And how not to

“Perfect swedish(ˈswēdiSH) is overrated(ōvərˈrādəd). But comprehensible(ˌkämprəˈhensəb(ə)l) Swedish is deeply underrated(ˌəndəˈrādəd),” says Ulf Kristersson, the leader of Sweden’s centre-right Moderate(ˈmäd(ə)rət) party, which supports a language requirement to become a Swedish citizen(ˈsidizən). The left has come round, too: the Social Democrat(ˈdeməˌkrat)-led government plans to introduce a language test. Sweden(ˈswēdn) would thereby leave the small club of European(ˌyo͝orəˈpēən) countries that do not make passing such a test a condition of naturalisation(ˌnaCH(ə)rələˈzāSHən).

To learn the language of the country you live in is the key to a full life there. But many experts in language policy oppose(əˈpōz) testing for citizenship—because they suspect a less compassionate(kəmˈpaSHənət) motive(ˈmōdiv) in some who propose(prəˈpōz) them. “Becoming a Danish(ˈdāniSH) citizen is something one has to become worthy of,” said Inger Stojberg in 2015, when she was the immigration(ˌiməˈɡrāSH(ə)n) and integration(ˌin(t)əˈɡrāSH(ə)n) minister(ˈminəstər) in Denmark’s(ˈdenmärk) centre-right government—implying that the unworthy(ˌənˈwərT͟Hē) had been slipping(ˈslipiNG) through. Her thinly(ˈTHinlē) camouflaged(ˈkaməˌflä(d)ZH) goal was not to improve immigrants’ Danish, but to naturalise fewer of them.


https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/01/30/how-to-design-language-tests-for-citizenship