1. 2019 BILC Conference 27-30 May, Tartu, Estonia
BILC Update

2. Bureau for International Language Co-ordination
NATO’s consultative and advisory body for language training and testing issues.
Main responsibility: custodian of STANAG 6001
Community of language teaching/testing professionals from MoDs and defense-sponsored organizations.
Mission: To promote and foster interoperability among NATO and Partner 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.
Purpose: To foster cooperative professional support among BILC member nations and to extend support to NATO within the field of language training and education and language assessment.
Active participation in BILC activities from 27 NATO nations and more than 20 partner nations.
The point of BILC ultimately is INTEROPERABILITY.
Our Mission is an important statement because there are plenty of civilian / academic language training and testing professional associations. But the BILC world is the defense-sponsored world and accordingly has some special aspects such as military interoperability, military terms, large numbers of people to train and at frequently higher levels than the purely civilian world of language teaching. BILC is a unique language organization as a result.
The BILC vision is to share progress made with member nations, partner nations and any nation who wishes to advance in the field of language training for military purposes. How is this done? Through the secretariat, there are a variety of initiatives that aim to foster these exchanges and promote standardization.
Established in 1966 as an advisory body to NATO. Founding members are France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The major responsibility of BILC is to be the custodian of the STANAG This STANAG is an important responsibility because it is the guidance underpinning the serious subject of Standardized Language Profiles (SLPs) which are found in many basic personnel requirements not to mention national directives and ministerial orders related to military personnel. I am not going to review the STANAG It can be found on the BILC web site. The current edition of STANAG 6001 is Edition 5, version 2.

3. BILC Steering Committee Associate Secretaries
Chair
Emilija Nesheva
GBR ( )
DEU ( )
USA ( )
CAN ( )
USA ( )
BGR (May 2016-May 2019)
Senior Advisor
Dr. Ray Clifford
Secretary
Col. Petko Petkov
This is our formal structure. Remember this is not a permanent staff element. To the left you can see the countries which have provided the secretariat over the years. The Presidency of the Secretariat was handed to Bulgaria at the end of the 2016 BILC conference in Riga and that was a great honor for our country. Currently the Secretariat consists of 7 members: BILC Chair, Ms. Emilija Nesheva, the Senior advisor Dr. Ray Clifford, BILC Secretary Col. Petko Petkov, and the four associate secretaries, Mr. Keith Wert and Ms. Peggy Garza from the USA and Ms. Julie Dubeau and Jana Vasilj-Begovic form Canada. The BILC Chair presides over the Steering Committee which meets each year at the annual conference. Voting members are NATO national representatives. Partner nations are welcome to attend and observe at Steering Committee meetings but do not have the right to vote.
In the end of this Conference the Presidency of the BILC Secretariat will be handed to Slovenia.
Associate Secretaries
Keith Wert
Peggy Garza
Julie Dubeau
Jana Vasilj-Begovic

4. Major BILC Events BILC Annual Conference in May;
BILC STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop in September;
BILC Professional Seminar in October.
There are 3 major BILC events: conference, workshop and seminar. Who attends BILC events? There is a great diversity of people who attend the BILC events. For example at the conference we meet people ranking from five-stars generals to lieutenants and civilians working for the militaries. This gives us the opportunity to scrutinize the problems of the foreign language training and testing from different aspects. But not only this – we can also implement the advice and absorb the knowledge and experience of all these people. Studying the need for decent English language competence for the NATO member and partner nations from various angles, allows us to have opinions from political, strategical, managerial and practical points of view. Starting from analyzing the needs and tasking by the highest authorities in NATO who are concerned about the interoperability of the NATO forces and the fulfillment of task goal E 1101 N and the partnership goal for English language proficiency to going down the chain of command to the managers of education and training and then to the practitioners: the classroom teachers and STANAG 6001 testers who perform the real work with the personnel.

5. 2018 BILC Conference Lisbon, 20-24 May 2018
Invigorating Training through Technological Tools
Sub-themes:
- Measuring success rates before and after the use of technology
- The science behind language learning
- Using technology to modernize testing
- Technology as a tool of teacher/student empowerment
- Does technology provide us with shortcuts to language learning success?
- Gaming as a learning tool
- Enhancing teacher training to match current expectations
- Effective language maintenance tools
- Social media and project-oriented, computer assisted language learning
- Incorporating translation technology in the classroom
Study Groups Topics:
- Familiarization with STANAG 6001 for Non-Specialists
- STANAG 6001 Handbook for Curriculum Development
- Revision of the Tri-Service Word and Terminology List
- Enhancing Teaching of the Writing Skill for NATO Staff Officers
- Distance Learning Enhanced by Technology
The largest BILC event so far – 101 participants from 36 countries from 4 continents and 3 NATO bodies – ACT, IMS and SHAPE! Some words about the theme of the conference:
For years, policy makers, teachers, parents and students alike have been weighing the potential benefits of technology in language classrooms against its risks and consequences. But now the debate is more pressing than ever, as curricula increasingly incorporate technology and professors experiment with new teaching methods. On one hand, using technology in the classroom allows you to experiment in pedagogy, democratize the classroom and better engage students. On the other hand, some argue technology in the classroom can be distracting and even foster cheating.

6. 2018 STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop Kranjska Gora, 4-6 September, 2018
SUCCESSFUL TRIALLING: FROM TRIAL AND ERROR TO BEST PRACTICES
Sub-themes:
-The basic steps of trialling
- Bilateral cooperation on trialling
- Collecting and analyzing data
- Selecting tools/software for data analysis
- Using IRT and non-IRT analysis methods
- Developing templates for the reporting of results
- Revising items with bad stats
- Piloting writing and speaking test prompts
- Banking items
52 participants from 3 continents, 24 countries + the Kingdom of SHAPE
The workshop aimed at standardization of planning, procedures and execution of language testing as language proficiency testing IAW STANAG 6001 is one of the important milestones towards interoperability within NATO and partner nations. Language proficiency test results that are aligned to a common standard promote personnel mobility and enable employers to rely on national nominations. At the same time it enables the personnel to perform their military duties without struggling with linguistic barriers. Therefore the workshop’s task was to promote the standardization of testing with the goal of facilitating communication wherever NATO and partner nations work together in international environment.

7. 2018 BILC Professional Seminar Zagreb, 15-18 October, 2018
LANGUAGE LEARNING AND THE ADULT MIND: ENHANCING MOTIVATION AND EFFICIENCY IN THE MILITARY CONTEXT Subtheme/topics: 1. Increasing language learning efficacy in the classroom a) Maintaining motivation in FL teaching/learning b) Promoting efficacy through in-house teacher professional development c) Bridging the gap between 1+/2 and 2+/3 in writing and speaking 2. Purposeful learning environment as a motivational factor a) Language teachers as course designers b) Authenticity of material in a language classroom and its effect on motivation c) Motivational techniques in promoting higher-level thinking skills 3. Strengthening responsibility for one's own learning a) The importance of self-efficacy in learning performance b) Fostering the learner-centered perspective and autonomous learning c) Teaching learning strategies and its impact on the learning process 4. Tester's contribution to learners' motivation and learning efficacy a) Learner-oriented test preparation b) Bridging the gap between teaching/learning and testing c) Training teachers to assess the productive skills
75 participants from 28 countries from 5 continents.
What did we discuss?
Learning a language is a fascinating, complex journey into a new culture and way of thinking. It forces us to challenge our minds, memories and mouths and to step out of our comfort zones. For many of us adults, this can sometimes be an uncomfortable experience. We're so accustomed to speaking our native language that the idea of communicating, taking risks and making mistakes in a new language is uncomfortable. This discomfort has also lead to the widespread myth that it's much easier for children to learn languages than for adults. But is it true? We work with adults and know that adult mind has specific characteristic and we saw interesting presentations on this topic.

8. Cooperation between BILC and Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP)
BILC actively supports the Defence Education Enhancement Programme DEEP activities when asked. Some of the BILC visits have been funded by DEEP.
This programme is providing tailored practical support to individual countries in developing and reforming their professional military education institutions. Expert advice is offered to defence education institutions seeking to become intellectually interoperable with the Alliance. Currently, active tailored DEEP programmes are ongoing in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Ukraine. Croatia and Mongolia have completed their programmes and a programme in Iraq has just been started.

9. BILC Cooperative Visits May 2018 – May 2019
Mauritania, September 2018
Ukraine, November 2018
North Macedonia, March 2019
Jordan, March 2019
Bosnia and Herzegovina, April 2019
Iraq, April 2019
BILC conducts non-resident activities wherein BILC teams of experts work with countries on different aspects of their military language training. When BILC Secretariat receives a letter from a country requesting our help, we organize a visit of experts to this country. Teams of experts from different countries voluntarily contribute on many aspects of military language training and testing programs during these visits and collaborations. Funding comes from NATO through various channels.
In this one-year period we had 2 visits sponsoured by ACT; ONE IN Ukraine and one in Jordan and 4 – sponsoured by DEEP in Mauritania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iraq.

10. BILC’s Professional Development Programme in Partnership Cooperation Menu (PCM. i. e. ACT-sponsoured BILC courses)
1. Language Testing Seminars (conducted at PLTCE):
Language Testing Seminar, ACT.647, 2 weeks;
Advanced Language Testing Seminar, ACT.658, 3 weeks;
Language Standards and Assessment, ACT.648, 2 weeks.
2. BILC Methodology Workshops
English Teaching Faculty Development Workshop “Teaching Speaking and Writing for Military Purposes”, ACT.659, 2 weeks. Conducted at 3 PTECs PLTCE, Bulgaria and Slovenia.
Facilitators: BILC teaching & testing experts from 24 nations.
The seminars BILC offers in conjunction with ACT support are focused on three objectives:
To make STANAG 6001 language tests in each NATO member and partner country comparable to each other;
To let the English language training managers, curriculum developers and classroom teachers get acquainted with the principles of assessment IAW STANAG 6001;
To offer professional development for the English language teachers who teach military students and subjects.

11. PLTCE sponsored courses
IRT Workshop - introduction to IRT concepts and the advantages of using Rasch IRT analysis
Applied Consecutive Interpretation Techniques (ACIT) Workshop focuses on the development of skills essential to the task of effective interpreting including: event preparation, memory and comprehension, note taking, and handling linguistic and ethical challenges assertively.
These are two workshops sponsoured by PLTCE and aimed at English language teachers and testers – the IRT workshop for testers and the ACIT workshop for teachers. We are expecting both of them to become ACT sponsoured as well.

12. Recent BILC Working Groups’ activities
Portability and Recognition of STANAG 6001 Certificates WG formed in 2016
Familiarization with STANAG 6001 for Non-Specialists WG formed in 2018
- Improving recognition of STANAG 6001 certificates both within the militaries as well as by civilian institutions
- Exploring more standardization of STANAG 6001 certificates across nations
- Rendering to non-specialists the complexities of comparing the STANAG 6001 criterion referenced tests to other types of language tests
- Four BILC policy recommendation documents developed and published on the BILC website:
BILC Policy Recommendation on Essential Information for STANAG 6001 Test Certificates
BILC Policy Recommendation on the Acceptance of Commercial STANAG 6001 Certificates
BILC Policy Recommendation on the Longevity of STANAG 6001 Language Certificates
BILC Policy Recommendation on the Portability of STANAG 6001 Language Certifications
Non-language specialists in NATO staff positions should be familiar with STANAG 6001 language proficiency levels in order to make informed decisions about SLPs and other matters relating to languages such as establishing policy on linguistic interoperability, determining capability targets for languages, and using English as an operational language within NATO, etc. While the STANAG 6001 Overview for Non-Specialists and the full STANAG 6001 descriptors can be used as in promoting a common understanding and interpretation of the descriptors, it has become evident that non-specialists making these decisions remain uninformed.
The goals of the WG were to:
propose a prototype e-learning module building on the existing BILC documents that will include samples of language at each proficiency level and explanations;
explore ways to make the Familiarization with the STANAG 6001 for Non-Specialists module readily available as a practical resource for non-specialists.
These are the two recent BILC working groups with excellent results .
I would like to remind the audience that the Portability and Recognition of STANAG 6001 Certificates WG produced four important BILC policy documents- they are on the BILC site and anyone can reach them very easily.
The Familiarization with STANAG 6001 for Non-Specialists WG is also ready with their product. In October last year they finished with the development of the new version of the STANAG for non-specialists one page description of the levels. Now the document is already part of the NATO Unclassified document S7-D-1 AS Annex D to SMAP 7 and is ready for use.

13. Here is the document itself
Here is the document itself. Here I would like to express my gratitude to the members of the WG and Mr. Philip Turner who made this project a reality.

14. Benchmark Advisory Test (BAT) Initiative
History of BAT – started in 2003 at the BILC Conference in Harrogate.
Purpose: to provide an external measure against which nations can compare their national STANAG 6001 test results and to standardize testing across the nations.
8 nations collaborated on the BAT development.
Contract awarded by NATO for the BAT delivery to ACTFL.
In 2009, 11 NATO nations participated, with up to 20 tests each .
BILC WG proposed a possible resurrection of the BAT after the 2016 BILC Conference in Riga.
- Evidence for the Validity Roadmap (Brno, Sept 2016);
- Discussed by the WG on Portability and Recognition of STANAG 6001 Certificates (Bled, Sept 2016);
- Survey of interest by BILC Secretary (fall 2017) nations responded favorably.
- In 2018 two BAT Writing & Speaking Forums took place (9-13 July and 6-10 August 2018) at PLTCE, Garmisch Partenkirhen. Some of the Participants were encouraged to receive certification as BAT certificates as interlocutors/raters.
- The certification process began a month after the forums.
- BAT 2 administration: November 2018 – June 2019
The idea to create a Benchmark Advisory Test (BAT) was born in 2003 at the BILC Conference in Harrogate, UK after a delegate indicated that the NATO STANAG 6001 interpretations seemed to vary significantly, and that it appeared that PfP nations were expected to adhere to the standard more stringently than some older NATO nations. The BAT project is a significant step toward language testing standardization and enhancement of interoperability. In December 2006, NATO ACT awarded a contract to the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The benchmarking process commenced in the late spring of The Portability WG group thought that first we must be comparable among ourselves then to such comparability outisde and suggested BAT2 to be organized. So BILC decided to 10 candidates per nation to be subsidized to sit for BAT2. About 21 nations expressed interest their candidates to be tested. In the summer of 2018, two BAT2 Writing & Speaking forums took place at PLTCE and 20 experienced testers from 20 countries took part in them. After that some of them were certified as BAT2 interlocutors/raters. BAT2 administration started in November 2018 and will finish in June 2019.

15. BILC SharP
BILCSharp has been kindly developed and administered by our Australian colleagues. On the BILC site you can find its last update – Communique 3. It was also sent to all national BILC PoC.

16. BILC site – www.natobilc.org
I would like to remind you that if you visit our BILC site, you may find a lot of information, resources and materials that might help you in your work. If you click on the Upcoming Events picture you may find the following BILC calendars for 2019 and I hope soon they will have more information in them especially for the events in 2020.

19. Questions? Contacts: BILC site https://natobilc.org
In the beginning of my presentation I told you that in the end of this conference Slovenia will overtake BILC presidency. But the BILC site will continue to be updated and the chairman’ will go on functioning.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Now I give the floor to Col. Petko Petkov, our BILC site guru, who will tell you a few words about it.