Understanding how to determine language proficiency during the hiring process is essential. Language proficiency testing provides accurate results employers can rely on. Administering a language proficiency test for employment purposes ensures businesses and corporations hire the best candidates for open positions.
The current global and culturally diverse economy in which the United States is immersed has created more awareness regarding the importance of having a multilingual and multicultural workforce in most industries and organizations, including in the governmental sector.
Everyone is on a language journey. You’re involved with some form of communication every day, whether you’re speaking, listening, reading, or writing. If you’re multilingual or studying a world language, then you have even more paths on your language journey.
As you grow in your first language and other world languages, you’ll want to become more fluent. You may also understand the term “language proficiency” and wish you were more proficient. Proficiency and fluency in a language are two distinct concepts you need to differentiate between as you continue your language-learning experience.
If you speak a second language, you may wonder how to highlight language skills on your resume. Being able to communicate in more than one language can be the key to opening new doors in your career, so you should showcase your language skills as much as possible.
It’s also important to describe your language proficiency accurately without overstating or understating your language skills on your resume.
Learn how to list language skills on your resume so you can put your best foot forward as you work toward your goals.
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If you are proficient in more than one language, you have a skill that can advance your career. The three most frequently requested languages in job postings, according to Preply, are French, Spanish, and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin).
Consider this: As of May 15, 2022, Indeed has posted over 900 jobs in the U.S. with the keywords “multilingual speaker”. In 2021, Indeed also posted an article on the 13 Best Careers for Multilingual Professionals.
Learning another language is a skill that requires dedication and commitment. In addition, those who are bilingual and multilingual are known to be better multitaskers and problem solvers — qualities you want to make known while job hunting.
Achieving a level of expertise in another language is impressive and should definitely be highlighted, even if you’re not looking for a job where a second language is required.
Knowing how to add language skills on a resume starts with understanding when you should include them. Consider how your language skills are relevant to the position for which you’re applying. When applying for jobs, you want your resume to be as accurate and honest as possible while highlighting skills that make you a valuable candidate.
If the job listing requires specific language skills, be sure to include information on your language proficiency in your resume. It is also a good idea to mention your language skills in the summary section of your resume to ensure recruiters scanning resumes can see them and can tell you’re confident about your language proficiency.
You may also want to add the languages in which you’re proficient to the skills section of your resume, even if the job listing does not specifically ask for it. Research the company’s locations and determine whether it conducts business internationally. The company may find it valuable for you to have language skills in one of the languages in which they conduct business, especially if the job is public-facing.
Here are some of the main tips to keep in mind when you want to include language skills on your resume.
Language proficiency can be subjective without the right context or criteria. In other words, your idea of being proficient in a second language may differ from someone else’s, including the recruiter who will be looking over your resume or interviewing you. Being able to carry a conversation in Italian with a waiter in Rome is far different than being able to negotiate trade deals or act as a translator in Italian.
To know how to describe language skills on a resume, you must honestly judge your language skills across four communicative mediums — speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Some employers may be more interested in your ability to write or read in a second language. Others may look for candidates who can speak and listen proficiently in a second language. You need a way to let your potential employers know how well you can communicate in the language and medium they require.
The best way to determine your second language proficiency in an objective way that potential employers can understand is by taking language proficiency tests. Language Testing International® is the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language proficiency tests, which employers and institutions worldwide recognize and trust when determining a candidate’s language proficiency. LTI delivers tests that can be scored in the following proficiency scales:
When you can include results from an ACTFL test delivered by LTI in one of the above proficiency scales on your resume, a potential employer will have accurate information about your language skills.
Your resume is the first place where you should put your language skills. To ensure recruiters notice these special skills, consider including them both in the skills section and the summary. As recruiters often only skim resumes, writing your language skills at the top of your resume will increase your chances of getting noticed.
LinkedIn is another place where you should highlight your language skills. If a job application process also requires a cover letter, be sure you mention your language skills there, too. Many companies are looking to expand globally in the near future, so even if language skills aren’t required for the job, being proficient will certainly make you a stronger candidate.
You may know several world languages and want to include your proficiency in each one. Or perhaps you want to get more specific and include your language skills in a particular medium, whether that’s reading, writing, speaking, or listening. Format your resume’s language skills section accordingly and clearly list your proficiency for each language skill you want to showcase.
For the most accurate list, choose a proficiency scale to use to display your language skills. The ACTFL, ILR, or CEFR frameworks of proficiency are common scales for assessing language skills. Then list all languages and mediums you have results for, including the specific results next to each language and medium. Listing these details makes it easy for recruiters to understand your language skills.
Have you used your language skills in professional settings before? Talk about it! Instead of simply stating that you command another language, give specific examples of how you used them.
Having a few concrete examples of how you incorporated your language skills into your work shows the hiring manager your level of ability and your proficiency level. Another idea is to post videos of yourself speaking or presenting in another language on your professional networks, such as LinkedIn. Recruiters searching for candidates will immediately notice them and acknowledge your language skills.
The best way to show your language skills on your resume is to include your proficiency rating from ACTFL tests delivered by LTI. We have certification tests for individuals that can accurately assess your language proficiency when you need an objective rating to share with prospective employers. As the exclusive licensee of ACTFL tests, LTI is the leader in delivering language proficiency testing you can trust to achieve your goals. Once your language skills are validated and certified, you will also receive an official digital badge through Credly. A language proficiency badge provides evidence of an indispensable skill and can be easily embedded in your resume, digital signatures, and on digital platforms, such as LinkedIn.
Browse our available tests online and schedule your language assessment today.
Today, workplaces across the United States require more than ever before a strong multilingual and multicultural workforce. A command of more than one language is a tremendous advantage for job seekers and people working in the United States because the population is continuously becoming more diverse. If you command two or more languages, the possibility that a federal, state, or local government agency could benefit from your skills is very high.
Have you ever reflected on the continuous growth of the immigrant community in the United States and the positive and direct impact your bilingual or multilingual abilities may have on the lives of people with little to no understanding of English? Nonprofit organizations across the country that serve recent immigrants oftentimes struggle to meet the language proficiency levels needed to effectively implement their outreach programs. Your ability to speak, read, write, or understand another language can be an asset to a nonprofit seeking these skills and for people suffering hardship due to language barriers.
English language learners from different cultural backgrounds face numerous challenges when looking for affordable housing, overcoming crises such as natural disasters, dealing with financial illiteracy, and/or seeking wellness for the members in their family, including the elderly. This is where the resources and support of the nonprofit sector play a fundamental role in the social and economic health of communities struggling to overcome language barriers to fulfill basic human needs.
There are countless organizations that have been aiding and transforming people’s lives for years and where your work as a bilingual or multilingual professional can make a difference. Family Promise, whose mission and goal is ending family homelessness, is an example of how a family’s livelihood can change when they have access to a nonprofit with staff members who are proficient in more than one language. One day, a single mom of two children who was struggling to pay her rent called their offices and left a message. A bilingual employee of Family Promise returned the call. The mom had reached out to several other organizations, but none had responded. Thanks to the bilingual employee’s language skills the mom was able to secure a rental assistance agreement and maintain the family in their home.
In addition, financial literacy assistance in various languages can help diverse segments of the population make better decisions about their finances. As English speakers, we sometimes find it difficult to manage our personal finances. Can you imagine how daunting it must be for non-English speaking people to understand how to navigate a financial system that is new to them? As a bilingual or multilingual professional, you can help guide individuals to information and resources that can help improve their economic situation and alleviate hardship.
If you are a person interested in helping the senior population and their caretakers with immediate food assistance, perhaps your local food pantry is a good starting point. The relatives and caretakers of elderly people often resort to their local food pantry for healthy and nutritious options when food is scarce. Most local food pantries determine a person’s eligibility for help through an application and interview, many times available only in English. Accurate communication is vital since certain state and federal programs may ask for supporting documents when going through the application process. As a bilingual or multilingual leader in your community or as a professional looking for a job opportunity in a nonprofit organization, looking for agencies near you that serve a non-English speaking senior population and that align with your interests can make you a champion of families who need help with their application forms. You can be the difference between someone experiencing food scarcity or not.
An ACTFL language proficiency assessment, delivered by Language Testing International (LTI) can help you determine your specific proficiency level. LTI offers language assessments in over 120 languages. ACTFL assessments are a valid and defensible language credential that is widely recognized by organizations worldwide. You can test for speaking, reading, writing and/or listening, and each test is designed to ultimately provide a valid and defensible credential of your language skills.
Sources
Carly Simon-Gersuk. MoveCU. “Five Financial Literacy Organizations You Should Know About”.
https://movecu.com/blogs/5-financial-literacy-organizations-you-should-know-about
HAC Housing Assistance Council. Resources. “Nonprofit Organizations”.
https://ruralhome.org/information-center/links-and-resources/nonprofit-organizations/
Senior-Meals.org. Elderly and Senior Meal Delivery Solutions from the Experiences of Family Caretakers for New Family Caretakers. “How Your Local Food Pantry May Be a Resource for Family Caretakers and their Loved Ones”. https://www.senior-meals.org/senior-food-pantries
Ricciott, Kacie. Family Promise. “Hispanic Heritage Month: The Importance of Bilingualism in Social Services”. September 28, 2022.
Jacqueline DiCanio is a multilingual professional who currently teaches Spanish in a public school. She realizes the importance of multilingualism and how it helps her be a better teacher and a better individual: “While teaching in a school with a diverse student body, I can connect with more kids,” she said. Jacqueline commands English, Spanish, and Italian. She obtained her ACTFL Proficiency Certificate with the plan to work for one of the DoDEA schools.
Read her story here: Language-Superpower-Magazine-Jacqueline_DiCanio
The demand for multilingual talent in the United States keeps growing across all industries, and the nonprofit sector is not an exception. If you are in a leadership position within a nonprofit organization, it is imperative to be aware that there is a high probability that your organization is engaging with people with low English proficiency, as volunteers or as clients. Have you asked yourself if your team is equipped with the necessary language skills to prevent a possible serious misunderstanding that can harm the organization’s reputation? Is your organization prepared to avoid a public relations crisis by eliminating language barriers? Through the recruitment and integration of language-proficient staff and volunteers, you can forge a strong and lasting relationship of trust with the diverse community you serve.
According to a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for ACTFL, 65 million residents of the United States speak a language other than English, and about 10 percent of the United States’ employable population is of limited English proficiency. “As a nonprofit organization, it is important to be engaged and relevant to the community that you are located in. By becoming an active member in the local area, not only can you increase the recognition of your organization, but you can also meet the people that make up the very community you operate in” (Forbes Nonprofit Council).
The benefits of hiring individuals who can speak more than one language are mutual. The people being served will feel that their needs matter and your effective multilingual communication in the delivery of your organization’s services will make a positive impact that transforms lives, making your funders happy. Similarly, knowing and understanding the cultural background of the communities served and the challenges or concerns that frequently affect them can develop a bond of trust between both parties. Furthermore, effective communication will generate the engagement of more individuals in the community, either as partners, volunteers, or new donors.
A key factor in supporting and advocating for underserved populations is to make sure that the issues of the people you are working with are addressed in a compassionate manner. Opportunities to get members of the community involved in your mission are plentiful, so stay true to your purpose of helping people in need by identifying the most-used languages in your area and reaching out to your diverse clientele using their preferred language. Initiatives such as gathering important information through community assessment surveys can create awareness of the issues relevant to non-English speaking segments of the population and a closer bond with your organization. “If members of the community in which a nonprofit serves do not feel comfortable working with the staff, they will not get the most out of what an organization has to offer. Additionally, if there is distrust between community and staff, the organization will not fully understand the needs of the community” (Oberlin).
Remember that providing clear in-language communication can save you time and money, and more importantly broaden the impact of the work you do for the betterment of society. Make sure your current or prospective bilingual and multilingual employees are truly prepared to handle challenging linguistic situations that may arise in your organization. The members of the community you serve will be loyal collaborators if your outreach efforts are developed and implemented with them in mind.
To ensure current and prospective staff and volunteers have the required level of language proficiency, make language assessments part of the recruitment process. For 30 years, LTI has been a trusted language testing provider for academic institutions, commercial clients, and federal, state, and local government agencies. As the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language proficiency assessments, they deliver valid and legally defensible language tests in over 120 languages. Scheduling tests is easy with LTI because their secure remote proctoring services allow test-takers to complete the assessments anywhere and at any time that is convenient to them.
Sources
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Lead with Languages Campaign commissioned Ipsos Public Affairs, with the support of Pearson LLC and Language Testing International. (2019). “Making Languages Our Business: Addressing Foreign Language Demand Among U.S. Employers.” https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/report
Forbes Nonprofit Council. “Nine Ways Nonprofits Can Increase Community Engagement”. Oct 17, 2017.
Carissa Oberlin. Arizona State University (ASU). ASU Lodestar Center Blog. “How Can Nonprofits Increase Leadership and Staff Diversity?” January 30, 2017.
https://lodestar.asu.edu/blog/2017/01/how-can-nonprofits-increase-leadership-and-staff-diversity
Nonprofit organizations are created to improve the lives of people in need. These organizations complement different aspects of society using their available resources either in health, education, or the arts to promote the social and economic development of all residents within a community. According to the National Council of Nonprofits, individuals who conduct or support nonprofit work cover an ample range of interventions that can vary from managing a food pantry to feed the hungry, providing life-saving trauma care for victims of accidents, to participating in relief efforts for hurricane survivors. All this humanitarian work can reach a larger number of people, domestically and internationally, when the people who are doing the interventions speak two or more languages. For instance, with U.S. Census forecasts predicting that by 2045 ethnic communities will become most of the nation’s population, it’s imperative to establish a reliable team of multilingual outreach teams to effectively meet the needs of persons in affected communities who might not fully command English. “The nature of nonprofit work makes the ability to speak other languages extremely valuable, and many times necessary” (Lyons).
Foundation List defines a nonprofit organization (NPO), “as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a shared point of view.” What better way to achieve an NPO’s goal and fulfill its mission than using the preferred language of the people being served? Multilingualism is a beneficial skill to have at hand when it comes to helping individuals in crisis or facing hardship, whether in our country, abroad, or in remote areas. When organizations don’t have bilingual or multilingual volunteers and employees, it can make the work of engaging and providing solutions more difficult. On the one hand, meeting new people, listening to their stories, and learning their needs while speaking with them in their preferred language is always insightful as well as rewarding. It allows you to connect with the person in an empathetic way and understand their concerns. On the other hand, it allows the individual in need to share specifics about their grievances, helping better solve them, while developing a strong and trustful relationship with the nonprofit organization’s team members.
The need to speak more than one language is becoming extremely relevant in nonprofit organizations because this sector is growing. The United States has 1.3 million charitable nonprofits. In fact, U.S. nonprofits are the third largest employer in the U.S. economy, as stated in the 2020 Nonprofit Employment Report from Johns Hopkins University for Center for Civil Society Studies. The National Council of Nonprofits states that the fundamental role nonprofits play benefits the whole community, not just the direct beneficiaries. The mission of this sector of providing adequate food, shelter, and access to reliable information to people of different ages, genders, races, or socioeconomic status is enriched when it receives and understands meaningful feedback from non-English speakers during outreach efforts. It also provides multilingual nonprofit professionals and volunteers the opportunity to work internationally.
For example, postgraduate students at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, recently conducted research to better understand language as both a problem and solution in the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. One of their research projects focused on water scarcity in India. Even though it rains sufficiently in India, limited access to safe drinking water has become a crisis, mostly affecting poor rural women who also experience low levels of literacy. Poor understanding of water conservation and political processes impact water allocation, contamination, and over-exploitation, making this a human-made problem that can be solved by engaging with rural communities orally in their preferred language through face-to-face interactions with the women affected. “When an organization, nonprofit, or business uses the native language of the group or community, know that your organization is also honoring that subgroup’s culture and traditions, promoting diversity based on the de-facto acceptance and validation of their cultural identity. In this way, your organization actively exercises the endorsement of different viewpoints, which are the essence of diversity and the rejection of conformity” (Ochoa).
If you are a bilingual or multilingual leader, volunteer, or professional looking for a new opportunity in the nonprofit sector, you can make a tremendous difference in society using your language skills. Contact Language Testing International (LTI) to assess your proficiency in one or more of over 120 languages. As an exclusive licensee of ACTFL, LTI conducts reliable and valid certifications through remotely proctored assessments that can take place at your convenience from the comfort of your home or office.
Sources
Foundation List. “What is a Nonprofit? Explanation of the types of nonprofits, definition, and the difference between “Public Charities” and “Foundations.” August 14, 2022.
https://www.foundationlist.org/news/what-is-a-nonprofit-the-types-of-nonprofits-definitions
Lester M. Salamon and Chelsea L. Newhouse, “The 2020 Nonprofit Employment Report,” Nonprofit Economic Data Bulletin no. 48. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, May 2020). Available at ccss.jhu.edu.
Lyons, Dylan. Bilingual Jobs: “How Language Can Make Nonprofit Work Even More Meaningful”. February 28, 2018.
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/bilingual-jobs-language-make-nonprofit-work-meaningful
National Council of Nonprofits. “Nonprofit Impact in Communities”.
https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/nonprofit-impact-communities
Ochoa, María. Emprender Creative. “How bilingual social media content helps promote diversity, equality, and inclusion in nonprofits”. May 20, 2021
Piller, Ingrid. Language on the Move. “ Language and communication in crisis”. October 21, 2021: https://www.languageonthemove.com/language-and-communication-in-crisis/
Starting at the beginning of the twentieth century, researchers in the field of linguistic anthropology, notably Franz Boas and Edward Sapir, conducted experiments to try and determine what effect, if any, language has on a person’s perception. Though those initial studies have been hotly contested, the groundwork was laid, and we have made great strides since then in identifying the ways language affects a person’s perception of the world around them.
Mastery of another language makes you an ideal candidate for the hospitality sector, and studies show that it can also change the way you perceive the world around you.
In this short article, we’ll look at a few experiments and their subsequent results that we’re sure you’ll find fascinating.
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For early twentieth-century linguistic anthropologists, the hypotheses as to the relationship between language and culture differed greatly. The various hypotheses all fall under the umbrella term linguistic relativity. The most famous of these hypotheses is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis that suggests that the particular language a person speaks has a strong influence on how that person perceives reality.
Early investigations into this hypothesis focused on a person’s perception of time—notably by studying the Indigenous peoples of North America in comparison to peoples of European descent. Later studies expanded on the idea, and it is those later studies we’ll be taking a closer look at in this article.
The earlier Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is today largely scoffed at by academics. However, it still serves to inspire researchers to examine other possibilities as to how language shapes a person’s perception. Let’s look at a few examples.
Several languages—like German and Latin languages: Italian, French, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese—assign a gender to otherwise inanimate objects. Researchers asked the question: Does the gender assigned to an object affect how we perceive that object?
Here’s what they found:
When interviewing Spanish and German speakers, they asked them to describe words that were feminine in one language and masculine in the other, for example, “bride” which is feminine in German (die Brücke) and masculine in Spanish (el puente).
The German speakers used words associated with women such as “beautiful” and “slender” whereas the Spanish speakers used words associated with men such as “strong.”
These same speakers associated words such as “potent” with men. Likewise, objects that in their language were assigned a masculine gender were deemed to be more “potent” than those assigned a feminine gender.
In a 2007 study, researchers examined how or if language affected one’s perception of color. Russian speakers have two words for blue—goluboy (light blues) and siniy (dark blues)– whereas English speakers have only one.
English and Russian speakers were tested on speeded color discrimination tasks. The Russian speakers fared quite better than their English-speaking counterparts. The results seem to suggest that language does have a notable influence on a person’s perception, at least in the objective recognition of colors.
The English language has few words to describe odors, instead preferring to rely on similes such as, it smells like garlic. However, this is not the case in other languages, notably in the language of the Umpila, Indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of Australia.
In a study examining the perception of odors among subjects across twenty different languages, Umpila people fared far better than people who spoke other languages. In fact, the study showed a direct correlation between the number of words for odors in a language and the ability of those speakers to accurately identify odors—also the speed at which they identified odors.
For languages with a richer variety of words to describe odors, such as Thai and Jahai, speakers of those languages performed better in the odor discrimination tasks than speakers of languages with few words to describe odors, such as Dutch or English.
Perfect pitch is a term used to describe a person’s ability to identify the pitch of a sound—the degree of the highness or lowness of a sound. In diatonic music, for example, notes are differentiated by the names do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti (and “sharp” or “flat” to designate the notes in between).
Most musicians in the Western world rely on what is known as “relative pitch” to understand a musical motif. This means that the musician can identify and understand the relationship between the notes, but they are incapable of identifying a note’s pitch if that note is isolated. That ability is known as perfect pitch.
European languages are not pitch dependent. That is to say that the meaning of the word does not change regardless of the pitch it is spoken in. On the other hand, many Asian languages are pitch dependent.
For example, Mandarin has ten different syllable sounds. But each syllable sound can be produced in one of four different pitches: high-level, mid-rising, low-dipping, and high-falling. Other Asian languages operate in a similar intonation or tone-based fashion.
In a study of music students between the ages of 4 and 5 conducted by psychologist Diana Deutsch of the University of California in San Diego, approximately 60% of the Chinese-speaking students tested as having perfect pitch. This is in sharp contrast to the roughly 14% of their English-speaking counterparts.
A similar contrast was shown in other age groups, though the percentages did decrease as the students got older: Chinese speakers between 6 and 7 tested for perfect pitch at around 55%, whereas their US counterparts at around 6%. For students between 8 and 9, the percentages were around 44% for Chinese speakers and next to zero for their US counterparts.
While more research needs to be conducted, language, to some extent, has an impact on how we perceive the world around us. Which languages do you speak? How do those languages affect your perception?
The degree to which a language will impact your perception will have to do, of course, with how well you speak the language.
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