NLSC Members Assisting with Validation of New Language Proficiency Tests

Several NLSC Members are participating in a study to validate new language proficiency tests being developed by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. Members are currently assisting in validating the DLPT 5 in Persian Farsi and will soon be assisting with Turkish and other languages.

Members have already helped validate the Very Low Range Defense Language Proficiency Test (VLR DLPT) in Levantine Arabic, French, Western Farsi (Persian), Mandarin and Korean. The VLR DLPT is part of the Defense Language Proficiency Testing System 5 (DLPT5), which is designed to assess the global language proficiency in reading and listening of native speakers of English who have learned a foreign language as a second language, and speakers of other languages with very strong English skills.

The DLTPT 5 testing system is designed as a measure of language proficiency in the reading and listening skills of foreign language learners, as set forth in the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) descriptors of language proficiency for levels 0+ through 3(The ILR scale ranks language skills on a scale of zero to five.

In response to the current needs of government agencies that make use of language proficiency testing, the VLR DLPT is explicitly designed to make distinctions among personnel with language proficiency of 0+, 1, and 1+. Although the current DLPT 5 tests do in fact make distinctions below level 1, the VLR DLPT is explicitly designed to focus on distinctions below level 2.

The “Low Range” DLPT tests for levels 2 through 3.

NLSC to brief National Guard language program managers

We recently met with the National Guard Bureau’s Total Army Language Program (TALP) Program Manager. TALP's goal is for Army linguists to achieve and maintain an appropriate level of language proficiency, based on the 0-to-5 scale of the Defense Language Proficiency Test. TALP provides funds to the major Army commands for language maintenance and sustainment training. The most common use of TALP funds is to provide teachers and materials for use by Army linguists.

We outlined the NLSC's capabilities and updated the TALP Program Manager on recent interactions we have had with some individual National Guard units. The Program Manager was so impressed with the mutual benefits of NLSC membership and the utility of the program that he invited the NLSC to present a short briefing in Monterey, CA, to all the National Guard Language Program Managers tomorrow.