SHAPE Update BILC Professional Seminar Bucharest, Romania October 2008 ☺ Mike Adubato SHAPE Language Testing Centre

 Individuals assigned to an ACO PE position should arrive with a valid STANAG 6001 certificate  Those who arrive without one will be tested by the SLTC

NOTE: This policy is for ALL ACO postings however, outside of SHAPE, none of the other sub- commands seem to follow the Chief of Staff’s policy!

In processing Data 1 Jan – 15 Sep 2008 Total in processed: 185 Certificates provided: 119 Tests passed: 24 Tests failed: 13 Pending: (you do the math!)

In processing Data by nations Belgium – 0 of 7 provided certificates Bulgaria – 0 of 1 provided certificates Czech Republic – 1 of 3 provided certificates Denmark – 1 of 1 provided certificates Estonia – 1 of 5 provided certificates France – 1 of 8 provided certificates

In processing Data by nations Germany – 3 of 19 provided certificates Greece – 30 of 32 provided certificates Hungary – 3 of 3 provided certificates Italy – 9 of 19 provided certificates Latvia – 0 of 1 provided certificates Lithuania – 2 of 4 provided certificates

In processing Data by nations Netherlands – 0 of 5 provided certificates Norway – 6 of 8 provided certificates Poland – 1 of 2 provided certificates Portugal – 4 of 5 provided certificates Romania – 3 of 3 provided certificates Slovakia – 1 of 6 provided certificates

In processing Data by nations Spain – 15 of 15 provided certificates Turkey – 38 of 38 provided certificates

NOTE: A valid certificate is one that meets the PE post requirements! example: if the post requires SLP 3333 & the certificate presented is 3332, that is NOT a valid certificate!

So what does all this mean anyway??

 Nations are sending their people to NATO without testing them  Nations are sending their people to NATO linguistically unqualified  In some cases, nations are sending people to NATO with certificates that are questionable!

SHAPE Tests  Bi-level reading test still being developed  Last week, it was pre-tested (2 nd time) at the Belgian language school in Lombardijse

SHAPE Tests Listening tests are still in the early stages Collecting texts/audio Writing items Moderating items

SHAPE is also looking into “buying” tests  University of Westminster was visited  DELASO was also contacted

SHAPE Tests If your nation out-sources testing, please provide me with some information – Name of organization & contact details – and/or phone number

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Questions: There are no dumb ones But we can change that!