This is the last in our three-part series of blog posts focused on tips for success with each component of the AAPPL. This post’s focus is the Interpretive Reading and Listening components. The IR/IL components of the AAPPL test your ability to understand written and spoken language. Here are a few pro tips to help you prepare.
Student Tips for Success on the IR/IL
- There is a series of tasks that involve matching images or text to each another by dragging and dropping. There will also be some multiple-choice questions. Those will be in English.
- Instructions set the context and give you a task for the reading or listening passage. Read the instructions carefully.
- You’ll listen to audio or read a passage. You’ll need to match the appropriate image or text to what you heard or read. Or you may be asked a multiple-choice question focusing on the main idea or supporting details.
- How can you prepare for these tasks? Practice! Watch TV, listen to online podcasts or videos in your language, and read real text. Be sure to always use appropriate websites.
- Check out the AAPPL demo online here. Use the demo to help you practice and become comfortable with the test’s flow.
- Do your best and show what you know.
Watch a short video with AAPPL Pro Tips: Interpretive Reading and Listening
Teacher Guidelines for the IR/IL
The Interpretive Reading and Listening components of the AAPPL test your learners’ ability to understand written and spoken language. These tips can help you support your learners and prepare them for the test.
Give learners many opportunities to practice interpreting spoken and written information.
- AAPPL tasks explore a variety of topics that are familiar to learners, such as school, family, and community. Have them access online podcasts or videos, websites, and real texts that are centered around familiar topics such as school schedules, family or community traditions, favorite pastimes or foods, etc.
- Have them take the demo version of the IR/IL in their language (minding which form they will be taking) to practice and to get more comfortable with the format of the test.
Familiarize learners with the format of the test.
- Learners will be prompted to listen to audio or read passages. They’ll need to match the appropriate image or text to what they heard or read. Or they may be asked a multiple-choice question focusing on the main idea or supporting details.
- Help them feel comfortable by giving them lots of opportunities to read and listen to authentic content in the target language. In pairs, groups, or assigned individual homework, help students interpret main ideas and supporting details.
- Remind learners to pay attention to the instructions.
Help learners practice by reading and listening to materials at their target level, so they can understand the meaning of what they hear and read.
- All AAPPL tasks target a specific major level of language proficiency (e.g., Novice, Intermediate, or Advanced) as described in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2024 and the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners. The performance tasks are designed to reflect the criteria for the level.
- For instance, the Novice level includes isolated words and lists, short familiar phrases, and commonly memorized phrases.
- The Intermediate level includes simple requests for information, simple questions, and communication of simple facts and ideas in a series of loosely connected sentences on topics of personal interest and social needs.
- The Advanced level includes routine informal and some formal dialogue, including narratives, descriptions, and summaries of a factual nature. Text at the advanced level includes narration and description in all major time frames, using connected discourse of paragraph length and structure.
Help learners know what to expect.
- The IR/IL components typically take 30 minutes combined to complete. Topics are general and will likely be very similar to what you’ve been covering in class (Form A & B topics are here).
- Scores are generally returned within 24 hours of completion of the IL/IR components.
Plan ahead
- Verify audio and video compatibility before testing time by using the AAPPL Demo and/or System Check.
- Plan ahead for learners with special needs requiring test accommodations. It is recommended that accommodations requests be submitted 2 weeks prior to your targeted testing date.
Find more at https://www.actfl.org/assessments/k-12-assessments/aappl#tips
