《国家通用手语水平等级标准及测试大纲》是中国首个用于手语交际能力测试的规范性文件，内容包括测试的名称、性质、目的和对象，测试的范围、内容、方式和时间，测试题型、样题和评分标准。《大纲》的研制遵循符合手语特点、具有国际视野、符合中国国情和便于信息化实施的原则，主要借鉴《欧洲语言共同参考框架：学习、教学、评估》2001年版和2018年扩展版的测试评估理念，形成包含手语理解能力、手语表达能力和手语交流能力3个维度，从词汇、句子、语篇、话题和语速5个方面施测，评定三级六等水平的国家通用手语水平测试等级标准。与此同时，研制出了信、效度较高的测试样卷，初步建立了测试题库。不过，中国手语本体研究尚不够深入，对研制工作产生了一定程度的制约，同时测试中仍有一些问题有待进一步研究和解决。

The Proficiency Standards and Testing Guideline for Chinese National Sign Language are the first national document in China to provide standards and specifications for assessing communicative competence in sign language. It specifies the name, nature, purpose, and target population of the test, the scope, content, format, and duration, as well as the item types, sample items, and scoring criteria. The development of the document was guided by four principles: reflecting the linguistic characteristics of sign language, adopting an international perspective, taking account of China’s national context, and facilitating technology-enabled implementation. Drawing primarily on the principles of the approaches set out in the 2001 edition of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR), as well as the 2018 Companion Volume, it establishes a three-dimensional proficiency framework encompassing sign language comprehension, expression, and communication abilities. Assessment is administered across five dimensions — vocabulary, sentence, discourse, topic, and signing rate — yielding a three-level, six-grade proficiency scale. In addition, sample test forms with high reliability and validity have been developed, and a preliminary test item bank has been established. Nevertheless, the relatively insufficient depth of ontological research of Chinese sign language has imposed certain constraints on the development process, and several issues in the testing procedure remain to be further investigated and resolved.