1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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”

5. Developing “Operational” Proficiency
Vilnius, LIT 2011
Developing “Operational” Proficiency

6. 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
BILC Website

7. 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

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. QUESTIONS?
Enjoy the Conference!