BILC Professional Seminar Helsinki, Finland 4-8 October 2015 “Increasing proficiency levels: What works and what doesn't “ Keith L Wert, BILC Chair BILC@marshallcenter.org

BILC Update Since last year at Ellwangen Annual Conference STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop BILC “Courses” BILC Cooperative Visits Special Initiatives Request from NATO/ACT Some thoughts on the theme A Remembrance

BILC Steering Committee Chair Keith L Wert GRB (1966-1981) DEU (1982-1996) USA (1997-2008) CAN (2008-2014) USA/PLTCE (2014- 2016) BGR (2016- ) Senior Advisor Dr. Ray T Clifford Secretary Peggy A Garza Julie J. Dubeau Associate Secretaries Jana Vasilj-Begovic

2015 BILC Conference Madrid, Spain 3-7 May Theme: NATO requirements versus national policies: Bridging the divide at the language school Study Groups Topics: Common Challenges Faced by Language Training Managers Assessing NATO Operational Language Performance Bridging the Divide with Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Beyond the BILC Website: Marketing BILC Events and Courses Forecasting Requirements: From Needs Analysis to Long-term Planning

BILC Courses NATO Standardization (STANAG 6001) NATO ACT 140 Language Testing Seminars (LTS) 2wks Advanced Language Testing Seminars (ALTS) 3wks Language Standards and Assessment Seminar (LSAS) 2wks NATO ACT 547 English Language Faculty Development Workshop (FDW) 2wks Language Testing Seminar Funding: NATO Self-Payers NATO Subsidies for eligible partners

STANAG 6001 Testing Workshops Introduction to BILC STANAG 6001 Testing Workshops Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2010 Testing speaking Stockholm, Sweden 2011 Testing writing Copenhagen, Denmark 2012 Testing listening SHAPE Mons, Belgium 2013 Integrating test development stages Reichenau, Austria, 2014 Item development workshop Vilnius, Lithuania, 2015 Challenges in Testing (text editing, authenticity, & Level 4)

STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop 8-10 September 2015 “Challenges in Testing: Text Editing, Authenticity, & Level 4” The specific challenges addressed: Text editing (listening and reading): Hands-on practical work What is authenticity? Presentations and panel discussions Level 4: An update from the Level 4 Working Group and practical activities in text rating

Twenty countries. Seven Facilitators The Czech Republic has offered to host the next one.

BILC Cooperative Visits Ukraine, October 2014 Georgia, March 2015 United Kingdom, April 2015 Mongolia, Sept 2015

Special Initiatives BILC SharP Level 4 Working Group NATO-Partnership Training and Education Centre (PTEC) collaboration BILC SharP

Ellwagen National POC needs to connect to Anna Ivanova

Request from Allied Command Transformation Joint Force Trainer BILC Chair attended Steering Group (SG) NATO Training Group (NTG) Meeting 15-16 June 2015 Annual meeting to hear reports from and provide guidance to the NATO Training Group and various service and specialty sub groups. Presented on BILC organization and activities and why they are important.

Request from Allied Command Transformation Joint Force Trainer 1. In accordance with References A and B, the SGNTG kindly asks BILC to conduct SGNTG 2015 Action Item Numbers 6 and 7 as follows: a. Integration of Language Education and Military Training. BILC to investigate the portability of NATO military language certification into civilian terms and vice versa, based on discussions during SGNTG 2015 Agenda Item #13.1. b. Integration of Language Education into Military Training & Exercises. Based on discussions during SGNTG 2015 Agenda Item #13.1, it was determined that a Study should be conducted to assess whether Language Education can be integrated into Military Training and Exercises more efficiently. BILC volunteered to conduct an informal review internally.

“Increasing proficiency levels: What works and what doesn't “ Some thoughts on the theme

BILC Chairman Emeritus Mr Herbert Walinsky (DEU)