Invitation to Participate in a New Proficiency Assessment for Less Commonly Taught Languages (Field Test)

The American Councils for International Education is inviting language professors and their students to participate in the online field testing of reading and listening comprehension in one of these languages:

• Modern Standard Arabic
• Mandarin Chinese
• Hindi
• Korean
• Tajik Persian
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Swahili
• Turkish
• Urdu

Participant Eligibility
• US-based university undergraduate or graduate (not currently enrolled in a Flagship program)
• Enrolled in second year of college level target language or higher OR Elementary-level proficiency equivalent to Level 1 on the ILR scale OR Intermediate low level or above on the ACTFL scale

Professors will receive acknowledgement on the American Councils website and project-related technical reports, and an honorarium $100 for proctoring the assessment. The first 100 student participants per target language will each receive a $20 Amazon.com e-gift card after assessment completion

Assessment Window
Tests will be scheduled online between September 16, 2013 and October 14, 2013.

Exam Format
The tests will be administered online and will consist of one reading comprehension and one listening sections that may be taken at separate sittings. Each section contains 44 items and will take up to 90 minutes to complete.

Contact
For participation or more information, please contact Ms. Ola Mahmoud, Field Test Coordinator at fieldtesting at americancouncils dot org by July 19, 2013.

Mahmoud, O. [LTEST-L] Invitation to Participate in a New Proficiency Assessment for Less Commonly Taught Languages (Field Test). LTEST-L listserv (LTEST-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU, 21 Jun 2013).