English Proficiency on Construction Sites: A Critical Safety Standard

English proficiency on construction sites improves construction site safety communication

Walk onto any construction site and you’ll hear a chorus of activity—power tools buzzing, cranes beeping, backup alarms sounding, and foremen calling out instructions over the roar of engines and heavy equipment. It’s a fast-moving, high-risk environment where every word matters.

That’s why English proficiency on construction sites is more than a helpful skill—it’s a critical safety requirement. Clear communication directly impacts accident prevention, OSHA compliance, and overall job-site performance. When instructions, warnings, or emergency procedures are misunderstood, the consequences can be severe.

In the construction industry, language is not just about convenience. It is about construction site safety, productivity, and lives.

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From Elective to Essential: How AAPPL Testing Elevates World Languages

For years, world language teachers have lived on the fringes of data-driven education. In most schools, English, math, and science departments shape their instruction around benchmark testing while elective departments like ours are left out of the conversation.

But that doesn’t mean our classrooms are any less rigorous or our instruction any less important. World language teachers can, and should, use data to validate and strengthen our programs. The AAPPL has become one of the most powerful tools to do exactly that.

When Professional Development Doesn’t Fit

If you’re a world language teacher in a small district or a department of one, you know the feeling. Professional development days are often built for literacy standards, math frameworks, or science labs. We sit there trying to translate the ideas into something that makes sense in our classrooms.

Our pedagogy rarely takes center stage. AAPPL has given me a way to take control of my own professional growth. The data provides clear information about student performance and proficiency that I can actually use. It gives me what I’ve always wanted: a way to improve instruction based on real evidence instead of guesswork.

AAPPL data allow world language teachers to join the same kind of conversations that administrators expect from “core” subject areas. AAPPL allows us to speak the language of data that school leaders understand and value, even if they don’t have a background in language acquisition.

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Strategies Considering DLE Standards and ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

Have you ever wondered how you can integrate the information in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines – 2024 (Guidelines) and the ACTFL Performance Descriptors into your Dual Language Education (DLE) or Dual Language Immersion (DLI) curriculum? Are you trying to meet DLE standards and also want to ensure you’re targeting performance descriptors at specific language proficiency levels?

Start with the End in Mind

Consider mapping out the standards you are targeting in a lesson or unit. Based on the theory of backward design (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), start with the end in mind.

  1. What is the desired output or evidence of learning you want from your students?
  2. From there, consider what learning outcomes will help you achieve that target.
  3. Finally, build the learning activities and assessments that will guide your students along the path to the desired outcomes.

If you are working to align your program with the Guidelines and a proficiency focus generally, keep that alignment across the board – in your learning objectives, assessments (e.g., ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages, or AAPPL), learning activities, professional development, etc.

As you do this planning, consider what modes of communication will be part of your learning activities. Here’s a sample scope and sequence that could be for a grade 9 DLE/DLI Language Arts class, illustrating how NCSSFL/ACTFL can-do statements and related performance tasks align DLE standards.

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Bilingual Incentive Pay and What It Means for Your Students

As increased emphasis is put on the economic advantages of specific coursework, some language educators may feel like the value of courses in the humanities is being undermined. However, a look at workforce needs and trends reveals language ability is not just a nice-to-have; in many cases, it’s a necessity. Industries such as state and local government, healthcare, tourism, finance, law, and technology need multilingual employees. In fact, 1 in 4 US employers report lost business due to lack of language skills among their employees (Making Languages Our Business Report). Beyond facing the need for multilinguals in the workplace, employers in several industries are beginning to offer compensation benefits specifically for bilingual roles.

Pull up quote asking questions about incentive pay to raise awareness among educators

What Research Tells Us

A recent 2024 survey of 319 corporate and government organizations revealed how bilingual incentive pay is applied across industries. With growing demand for multilingual employees, many organizations recognize the value of financial incentives to reward these critical skills. The insights gathered from this survey shed light on current trends and employer practices, related to bilingual incentive compensation. Here are a few highlights.

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Beyond Chatbots: Ethical Machine Scoring Innovation for the Spanish AAPPL PW

What is the difference between machine scoring systems and chatbots?

The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword used in various businesses, organizations, and media in general. Many have warned about the dangers of using such a phrase as a blanket term to describe technologies that are not truly AI, as it tends to mislead the public about what AI is and what their expectations should be (The AI Buzzword Trap, n.d.). In the same vein, there has been a trend to equate AI to chatbots like ChatGPT. This is not uncommon even among academics (Jordan, 2019). In a recent Applied Linguistics academic conference, there were a total of 40 presentations related to the search term “Artificial Intelligence” out of which about 31 were about generative AI or chatbots, like ChatGPT.

AI is much bigger than chatbots. In fact, AI encompasses a variety of technologies that enable machines to perform tasks requiring human-like intelligence. Self-driving cars are a real-world example of AI technology that is beyond chatbots. Just like when training a human to drive safely, the machine is trained to recognize traffic signs, avoid obstacles, make decisions at intersections, and overall follow the traffic regulations. With the help of (1) sensors that gather millions of data points on what is ahead, beside, or behind, (2) software that processes all these data points collected through the sensors, and (3) machine learning that recognizes patterns in the data points collected to support the machine in improving their driving,  a machine is able to perform the human-like task of driving a car in real traffic.

Likewise, ACTFL® and Language Testing International® (LTI) have leveraged state-of-the-art machine learning technologies to build a model that would provide scores to Spanish AAPPL PW (ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages Presentational Writing) responses just like ACTFL certified raters would do. Like with self-driving cars, the research team at ACTFL and LTI trained the machine to perform the task of a certified human rater by (1) compiling thousands of data points of actual test responses and rater scores, (2) using software to process these data, and (3) applying machine learning techniques to find patterns to optimize the machine scoring performance.

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Language Is a Business Asset: Why HR and Talent Acquisition Teams Are Integrating Language Proficiency Testing – LTI Blog

HR language screening tools

In today’s competitive talent landscape, language is more than a communication skill, it’s a business asset that directly impacts hiring quality, employee performance, and organizational risk. As HR and Talent Acquisition professionals face growing demands for stronger communication standards across industries, the need to verify bilingual talent through objective language proficiency testing has never been more essential.

Organizations operating in global, multilingual, or customer-facing environments increasingly rely on ACTFL® language proficiency assessments to ensure that candidates and employees possess the communication skills required for safety, compliance, service quality, and operational performance.

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Ensuring Patient Safety: Why Healthcare Employers Must Validate Language Proficiency Beyond English – LTI Blog

bilingual healthcare staff

In today’s high-stakes healthcare environment, clear and accurate communication is a patient safety requirement—not a luxury. While English remains the primary language of healthcare documentation and instruction in the United States, the ability of healthcare professionals to communicate effectively in multiple languages has a direct impact on treatment accuracy, health outcomes, and compliance with federal regulations.

For the millions of individuals in the U.S. with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), miscommunication can be life-altering or even fatal. This is why healthcare HR leaders, Talent Acquisition teams, and Language Access Coordinators are increasingly focused on ensuring that bilingual staff possess validated language proficiency, not just informal or self-reported fluency.

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Are You Professionally Proficient in All of Your Languages? Discover Your ACTFL Language Proficiency Level – LTI Blog

I hate to break it to you, but being bilingual doesn’t necessarily mean you’re professionally proficient in your second language. By taking an ACTFL® language proficiency assessment through Language Testing International® (LTI), you can accurately measure your abilities in speaking, reading, writing, and listening and strategically grow your career by leveraging all of your certified language skills.

If you use more than one language at work, you’re part of a growing and highly sought-after group of bilingual professionals in today’s global marketplace. But it’s crucial to know your true language proficiency level, especially in a professional context. A validated language testing solution, like the ACTFL assessment delivered by LTI, helps ensure your communication meets the expectations of global employers.

Speaking multiple languages is a tremendous advantage—but it doesn’t automatically mean you’re ready to manage workplace communication in all of them. That’s why earning an ACTFL language certification through Language Testing International is a smart step for career-minded bilingual professionals. Certification verifies your workplace language proficiency and helps you stand out to employers with global business operations.

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Leveraging Language, Connecting Students to Employment Opportunities – LTI Blog

How many bilinguals or multilinguals are there in the US?

In 2020, researcher François Grossjean suggested that the number of bilinguals is particularly hard to nail down because the Census Bureau doesn’t track the number of people who use multiple languages in their everyday lives. However, they do ask some specific language-related questions: “Does this person speak a language other than English at home? What is this language? How well does this person speak English (very well, well, not well, not at all)? These questions were first asked in the census every 10 years, but they are now part of the annual American Community Survey (ACS)” (Grossjean, 2020). Grossjean also points out that bilingualism has been on the rise in the U.S. over the last several decades, while the rate of non-English speakers has remained roughly constant.

graph showing percentage of population being bilingual vs. monolingual
Source: François Grosjean, Psychology Today

Roughly 1 in 5 Americans speak more than one language, with varying levels of ability. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, roughly 22% of people aged 5 and older spoke a language other than English at home, based on data from 2017–2021 (www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/2017-2021-acs-language-use-tables.html). As your students achieve the Seal of Biliteracy, they become members of a unique segment of the population! You can help them promote their bilingualism as an employability asset. Encourage them to emphasize their bilingualism and to include their ACTFL credentialing in their job applications.

 

 

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High-Impact Credentialing in Adult and Continuing Education: Why Language Skills Matter – LTI Blog

By Gosia Jaros-White, MA and Michael Herrera, EdD

Adult and continuing education has always been about opening doors, providing opportunities for individuals to re- or upskill, re-enter the workforce, or advance in their careers and gain valuable credentials in the process. Today, the need for high-impact credentialing is greater than ever. In a rapidly shifting labor market, credentials provide visible, portable proof of the skills employers seek. For adult learners, especially those who are multilingual, credentialing can be the difference between underemployment and meaningful career mobility.

The Power of Career-Connected Learning

Research from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (2023) shows that adults with credentials earn significantly more than their peers without them. The return on investment (ROI) for reskilling and upskilling is clear: a recognized credential leads to better jobs, higher wages, and stronger economic security.

For employers, credentials reduce uncertainty in hiring and signal that workers are job ready. For learners, they provide the confidence to compete in a tight labor market. And in adult education, credentialing can improve persistence and program completion by showing learners their progress in tangible, workforce-relevant ways.

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