ASTM releases language proficiency testing standards

We are pleased to announce that ASTM has approved industry standards for assessing language proficiency! The standards are available from the ASTM web site for a fee.

The Chief Linguist of the NLSC organized and chaired the sub-committee that developed these standards because, while we accept volunteers who speak any language, we focus on the less-common ones. Many, maybe most, of these languages do not yet have proficiency tests. Our concern was how to develop reliable tests for these languages when there were no standards for creating them.

There was enough interest to launch a sub-committee to take on this challenge as I have noted earlier. And the members of this sub-committee came together and produced the standards in an amazingly brief (for standards development) 15 months!

The new standards cover the entire lifecycle of a test, from creating it to administering it, maintaining and updating it.

I approached two individuals in the field for their reactions: from the business side, Dr. Charles Stansfield, President and Founder of Second Language Testing, Inc., and from government, Glenn H. Nordin, Foreign Language and Area Advisor in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence.

Dr. Stansfield noted that the ASTM standards will benefit both industry and the government. “For years, government agencies have tried to create their own tests. This has not worked out for a variety of reasons. Often the tests simply were not completed. Other times, they were not developed and reviewed carefully enough. Within and across agencies, there was inconsistent rigor, because there was no set model that people were following.

The ASTM standards change all of that. The government and the language industry have collaborated to produce standards that can be used by either to develop language tests based on the government's scale of language proficiency. This will allow the government to issue contracts for test development and to evaluate the products for adherence to the relevant ASTM standards. This will mean much more work for those companies involved in language testing and most likely new companies will feel that they can enter the picture.”

When asked how he thought the standards will benefit a company like Second Language Testing, Dr. Stansfield said that “SLTI already understood and was practicing the processes and procedures elaborated in the ASTM standards. It won't change our processes much. On the other hand, it will facilitate reaching agreement in discussions with the Government on funded language testing projects. It will also facilitate consistent evaluation of the work products we submit.”

Mr. Nordin agreed that the standards “will meet a long-felt need for detailed guidance on development and employment of language proficiency test vehicles, test content, and use of test results. “In itself, the standard is useful as a textbook with checklists for persons without education or previous experience in proficiency assessment. As a reference within a contract for test development, it will serve to focus buyer and supplier concentration on essential components of test development and use.

“The document is a consensus standard practice that has been produced by a consortium of the best and brightest from government and academe language education community together with the language service industry.

“When … widely employed in test development, it will make a significant contribution to the national framework essential to building the US professional cadre of language workers. This Standard Practice joins the ASTM guidance on language teaching, translation and interpretation in the base documentation essential to improving the US capabilities in world languages to meet the global communicative needs of the future.” Speaking of the other language-related ASTM standards, these and the new language proficiency testing standards will move out from under the Consumer Products committee (which covers products ranging from baby carriages to wall coverings), in which they have resided, to their own committee on Language Services and Products.

The National Language Service Corps is part of the National Security Education Program.