Valid and Reliable Language Proficiency Assessments
Language proficiency assessments from Language Testing International – whether of reading, speaking, writing or listening – are the pinnacle in language proficiency testing. Our exams focus on language proficiency rather than knowledge, and meet all of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) requirements. As such, our proficiency assessments represent the top of the line in the field of language testing. With over 20 years of experience, over 100 languages tested, and a deep understanding of what constitutes language proficiency, Language Testing International is a leader in the industry today. Language proficiency assessments are not all created equal, and it is important to understand what makes assessments from Language Testing International the most effective and accurate ones that you can get.
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English language proficiency exams are one way that you can accurately place candidates and employees in your company or institution. With many employees coming to the workplace with multilingual skills, it is important to ascertain whether or not those same employees have proficiency in English, the most important language in the United States. While having candidates that can speak other languages is valuable, these languages are far less useful if your teacher or employee cannot also communicate effectively in English. Whether you are an academic institution seeking to certify language ability for teachers or a corporate institution needing to accurately place candidates for available jobs that require language skills, Language Testing International offers English language proficiency exams to ascertain whether your staff members have the language abilities necessary to succeed.
Language Testing International is the exclusive licensee of exams produced by the foremost authority on foreign language acquisition in the United States – ACTFL, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Decades of research demonstrate unequivocally that ACTFL’s language tests are second to none. By combining decades of experience with cutting edge technology, ACTFL and LTI’s proficiency tests are demonstrably superior to those of our competitors.
Aimee Mack came to a quick realization last spring as she and colleagues pored over Connecticut’s new teacher evaluation system: Their jobs would depend on being able to share evidence of their language learners’ growth with the entire school community. “We knew that as a department we were going to be looking at data as part of our evaluation,” says Mack, a French teacher and world languages team leader at Brookfield High School. “That made me wonder: Does a standardized test for world languages exist?” She soon heard about something that seemed to fit the bill: the ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages. Called AAPPL Measure or simply AAPPL, the online, performance-based test assesses students in the Interpersonal, Interpretive and Presentational modes of communication, with tasks that require learners to listen, read, speak, and write about topics commonly explored in language classrooms. Each task—whether typing out an e-mail message, video chatting with a recorded native speaker, or making selections based on an understanding of something heard, read, or viewed—occurs in the context of a Standards based classroom. Students can take one or all portions of the test; they then receive reports that classify their demonstrated level of performance and offer detailed suggestions for moving up. (Sample tests in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, and Russian can be found at aappl.actfl.org/demo. More language are being added, including English.) AAPPL’s availability comes as states grapple with two interrelated, high-stakes challenges: