1. BILC Conference Prague 2012
STUDY GROUP 2 Applying STANAG 6001 in
foreign language learning
Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Spain, UK

2. CHALLENGES IN APPLYING STANAG 6001 ED4 TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE
TEACHING AND TESTING
USEFUL GUIDELINE FOR TEACHERS, CURRICULUM DEVELOPERS AND TESTERS

3. Guidance for language teachers and curriculum developers:
TEACHING
Guidance for language teachers and curriculum developers:
How can teachers make use of STANAG 6001 to help achieve their classroom goals?
Understanding the benefits for teachers.
Using the STANAG as a road map in language teaching.
How do the teaching of grammar and vocabulary relate to the STANAG?

4. Understanding the benefits for teachers
Teachers should know the STANAG.
STANAG can be used as a reference.
The labels (survival, functional etc) are a guide for teachers. “Plus” levels are important too.
STANAG states what should be achieved.
Two-way feedback control tool.

5. Understanding the benefits for teachers further considerations
Knowing the format of the SLP test can be important for teachers and students.
STANAG needs to be explained to teachers.
Language specific examples are needed.
Each nation may need to clarify specific terms mentioned in the STANAG.

6. Using the STANAG as a road map in language teaching.
The tasks are the same for all languages. BUT What grammar (Accuracy)/vocabulary (Content) needs to be taught differs from one language to another. and The time needed to acquire the necessary knowledge varies (complexity of the new language as compared to mother tongue).

7. Using the STANAG as a road map in language teaching.
Teaching can be guided by STANAG.
STANAG lays out a logical progression.

8. TESTING
Guidance for language testers: How can testers make use of STANAG 6001 to assess language proficiency?
Testing in accordance with STANAG 6001.
Testing military/job-related language skills.
How does the STANAG scale relate to the CEFR?

9. Testing in accordance with STANAG 6001
STANAG is more easily applicable to testing rather than teaching.
For testing purposes the STANAG needs to be analyzed and broken down.
Testers of a particular language need to consider what it means, in terms of task/content/accuracy to reach a level taking into account the specific grammatical complexity and sociolinguistics.

10. Testing military/job related language skills
Language for specific purposes or military terminology is not mentioned in the STANAG.
Nevertheless, STANAG can of course be used as a generic assessment of military personnel to measure professional language proficiency.
But specific performance tests could be more suitable for measuring progress after a specific terminology course.

11. How does STANAG scale relate to the CEFR?
Knowing a CEFR level can be used as a reference to know where the student is in his/her learning progression.
A straight equivalence is not possible although mapping studies are still in progress.

12. Conclusions
PROFICIENCY
Teaching Testing
STANAG

13. Recommendation for BILC
Experts on different languages form working groups to analyze and identify linguistic components in their particular language/s to achieve the levels as defined in the STANAG.

14. Thank you for your attention!