The SHAPESHAPE Update

BILC Conference – Istanbul 2010

Michael AdubatoSHAPE Language Testing Centre

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

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BILC Conference –May 2010

BILC Conference – May 2010

Belgian Prime Minister resigns again Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:43:58 GMT

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme

BILC Conference – May 2010

NATO has approved the new Peacetime Establishment (PE)!

And what does that mean?

It means that they can start on the NEXT PE reorganization!

BILC Conference – May 2010

What does this mean to us as language teachers, testers, etc?

-It means that a bunch of military officers who have little or no knowledge about STANAG 6001 or what an individual is capable of doing at each levelmade command decisions about what SLPs are required for specific posts.

-End Result: we have what appears to be a LOT more posts requiring 4’s in their profile!

Again, what does this mean to us as language teachers, testers, etc?

THE NEW YORK POST SAID IT BEST…

BILC Conference – May 2010

BILC Conference – May 2010

ACO (Allied Command Operations) consists of SHAPE , JFC* Naples ,

JFC Brunssum and JFC Lisbon , as well as their subordinate

commands.

TOTAL NUMBER OF POSTS REQUIRING 4s: 726726

*Joint Force Command

BILC Conference – May 2010

Of the 726 posts, 65 of them need SLP 4444

SOME SEEM TO BE JUSTIFIED HOWEVER!!

22 posts at JFC Naples are for US military personnel (fine but next to impossible for most other nations to fill them if the USA does not!)

(and I’m willing to bet that if those 22 were tested that all would NOT achieve SLP 4444 – half are NCO grades!!)

Some interesting ones…

-FRENCH OR6 Staff Assistant in Travel Services – 4444-USA OR7 Supply Supervisor – 4444-GERMAN OR5 Data Base Manager – 4444-GREEK OR7 Admin Assistant – 4444-FRENCH OR6 Admin Assistant - 4444

BILC Conference – May 2010

STUDY GROUP #4!!!

In a nutshell: NATO tasked ACT who tasked BILC who taskedSTUDY GROUP #4 to come up with possible ways on how to proceedin sorting out this minor irritation.

“Language Needs Analysis of Standard Language Proficiency levels in NATO Job Descriptions”

- Entry Tests

Pass: 16 Fail: 12 Total: 28 42% FAILED!

- Re-Tests

- Pass: 8 Fail: 30 Total 38 78% FAILED!

BILC Conference – May 2010

- Entry Tests

Pass: 8 Fail: 9 Total: 17 53% FAILED!

- Re-Tests

- Pass: 6 Fail: 29 Total 35 82% FAILED!

BILC Conference – May 2010

- Re-test Failures deficient skills:

Listening: 3Speaking: 14Reading: 3Writing: 16

For the 29 who failed!

14 candidates failed 1 skill, 10 failed 2 skills, 1 failed 3 skills

and 5 failed 4 skills!BILC Conference – May 2010

BILC Conference – May 2010

-Total newcomers to SHAPE Jan – Apr 2010: 20

-Arrived with certificates: 8

-Tested and passed (those w/o certif) : 2

-Tested and failed (those w/o certif): 3

-Pending 7

BILC Conference –May 2010

French Navy HQs PARIS

Correlation Study or Does TOEIC = STANAG 6001

BILC Conference –May 2010

Purpose – to see if there was any correlation between TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and STANAG 6001

The panel consisted of 15 individuals who were meant to be language testing/training experts

There were FIVE of your distinguished BILC colleagues, a.k.a. “the usual suspects” who participated

BILC Conference – May 2010

MaryJo Di Biase from

BILC Conference – May 2010

Corina Ispas from

BILC Conference – May 2010

Karen Sacre, formally of

DLI, San Antonio, USA

BILC Conference – May 2010

Ulla Gudnasson from

(Homer loves Denmark!)

BILC Conference – May 2010

Yours truly from

BILC Conference – May 2010

And some of our distinguishedFrench colleagues from the differentLanguage institutions in France

BILC Conference – May 2010

1 – USA1 – Italy1 – Denmark1 – Romania1 – ACO/SHAPE3 – Poland7 – France

Flaw in the study – not everyone was familiar with STANAG 6001!

BILC Conference – May 2010

-The panel seemed to be chose at random

-Some panel members had little or no experience with testing

-One panel member had nothing to do with testing/training but was an administrator and POC for the study

-TOEIC is a norm-reference d test*

-TOEIC was developed in Japan (very different culture) for the purpose of testing Japanese & Korean in the business world

*A norm-referenced test is a type of test, assessment, or evaluation which yields an estimate of the position of the tested individual in a predefined population, with respect to the trait being measured. This estimate is derived from the analysis of test scores and possibly other relevant data from a sample drawn from the Population. The term normative assessment refers to the process of comparing one test-taker to his or her peers.

BILC Conference – May 2010

-The L &R parts focus on ONLY discreet points (grammar & vocabulary)

-Reading an English text was considered part of “speaking” test

- Responses to computer-generated questions could be no longer than 30 seconds in duration, which does not show a ratable sample at any level (except perhaps L1)

-tasks are not able to reliably or accurately measure the language requirements IAW STANAG 6001

BILC Conference – May 2010

-IGNORE any reports from ETS or any organization claiming a correlation between TOEIC & STANAG 6001

-IGNORE any STANAG certificates that were granted by nations (or anyone) based on taking the TOEIC

BILC Conference - May 2010

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Questions? Questions?