BILC Updates “DEVELOPING OPERATIONAL PROFICIENCY” BUREAU FOR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE COORDINATION BUREAU DE COORDINATION LINGUISTIQUE INTERNATIONALE BILC Updates 9 May 2011 – Vilnius, LIT “DEVELOPING OPERATIONAL PROFICIENCY” Julie J. Dubeau & Jana Vasilj-Begovic BILC Secretaries

Updates What is BILC? Programme of work 11-12 STANAG 6001 Assistance to Testing Programmes LTS, ALTS, visits, workshops STANAG Conferences Collaborative Language Training Assessments BAT Level 4 WG LNA

BILC Mission and Vision To promote and foster interoperability among NATO and PfP nations by furthering standardization of language training and testing. To support the Alliance's operations through the exchange of knowledge and best practices, IAW established procedures and agreements. Vision To achieve levels of excellence where progress made by one is shared by all.

Two Main Annual Events May 2010 hosted by Turkey - Annual Conference in Spring May 2010 hosted by Turkey - “Mapping The Road: Success in Language Training” May 2012 hosted by Czech Republic - “Theme TBD” Professional Seminar in Fall October 2010 hosted by Bulgaria – “Aligning Training and Testing in Support of Interoperability” October 2011 hosted by U.S.A. – “Theme: Furthering Our Training Goals Through Research”

Developing “Operational” Proficiency Vilnius, LIT 2011 Developing “Operational” Proficiency http://youtu.be/zfVLTKktt3A

STANAG 6001 BILC is Custodian Secretariat proposed admin. change during Istanbul conference last May Result: Edition 4 promulgated by NSA in Oct 2010 English and French versions can be downloaded from the BILC website www.bilc.forces.gc.ca BILC Website

What does BILC do? Language Testing Seminar (LTS): 2 weeks Assistance to National Testing Programmes (Peggy Garza) Goal: to assist nations in establishing, restructuring or improving their testing systems Language Testing Seminar (LTS): 2 weeks Jun-July 2010 Nov 2010 (BILC celebrated 10 years of LTS!) Feb 2011

What does BILC do? Advanced Language Testing Seminar (ALTS): 3 weeks Mar-Apr 2011: 11 participants from 11 different nations Assistance to National Testing Programs Bosnia-Herzegovina/Georgia Cooperative Event, June 2010 Azerbaijan: BILC Testing Expert Visit, July 2010 Georgia: Testing Assistance Visit & Workshop, July 2010 Macedonia: Testing Assistance Visit & Workshop, Dec 2010 Planned: Australia: May 2011, 2-week STANAG 6001 testing workshop Planned: Azerbaijan, June 2011 Pending: Moldova

STANAG 6001 Testing Conference Stockholm, Sweden 6-8 September, 2011

STANAG 6001 Testing Conference: Stockholm, SWE, Theme: Topics in Testing Writing Differences between level 2 and 2+ writing samples Comparative analysis of concrete and abstract discourse Evidence of level sustainment in first draft writing Holistic versus analytical rating Intra/inter-rater reliability Developing prompts for level 3 elicitation Characteristics of written text features at different levels Small group workshops

What does BILC do? Collaborative Language Training Assessments (K. Wert) Goal: to assess language training and testing programmes and offer recommendations Serbia: June 2010 Albania: Nov 2010 Jordan: Jan 2011 Pending: AZE & GEO

BAT New price $120 / battery of 4 (L,S,R,W) Nations continue to benchmark Contact Helen Hamlyn: Helen.Hamlyn@languagetesting.com ACTFL studying/researching ‘alignment’ with a CEFR-based listening test

Level 4 Analysis Analyse Level 4 construct In Istanbul, BILC Steering Committee recommended to form a working group to: Analyse Level 4 construct Study feasibility of testing at Level 4 Develop test specs if need established Work to be continued during the WG meetings and subsequently Results to be presented at the BILC Seminar in Monterey, USA, October 2011

LNA Status NTG w/ BILC is tasked to instigate a LNA of SLP levels in NATO Job Descriptions. Ref.: SACT HQ 5000/TI-3220/TT-5250/Ser:NU0086, dated 12 Feb 2010 IAW JSSG Spring meeting March 2010, BILC is to “make recommendation to ACT who will advise IMS on feasibility and parameters of analysis, after this conference. Tasking to be completed NLT June 2011”. STATUS: This task will be accomplished on time: A Scoping Report is being produced for the IMS.

QUESTIONS? Enjoy the Conference!