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A Principled Approach to Language Assessment Considerations for the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (2020) / Chapter Skim
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5 Interpreting FSI Test Scores
Pages 63-68

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From page 63...
... However, as discussed in Chapter 2, a full understanding of the target language use domain for any specific government language use requires more domain-specific detail than is included in the ILR skill-level descriptions. For example, Foreign Service officers need to use the target language to engage in social conversation and write informal email messages, in addition to understanding formal presentations, which are different language 63
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From page 64...
... The ILR framework makes it possible to discuss personnel policies related to assessment of employees' language proficiency in common terms across government agencies. As described in Chapter 3, most language-designated positions for Foreign Service officers are specified as requiring certification at the ILR level 3 in both speaking and reading.
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From page 65...
... With such an approach, the ILR framework could retain its essential role in helping coordinate personnel policies across government agencies that assess employees' language proficiency, but FSI's testing program would not necessarily be defined solely in terms of the ILR framework. The testing program could use a more detailed and specific understanding of the target language use domain in the Foreign Service as the basis for designing tasks, scoring test-taker performances on those tasks, and interpreting those performances with respect to the required language proficiency of Foreign Service officers.
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From page 66...
... In this approach, it may be necessary to map the resulting test scores to the ILR framework to link to the common personnel policies across government agencies. For example, suppose FSI decided to augment its current speaking test with a technology-based test using many short listening tasks (see Chapter 4)
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From page 67...
... CONSIDERATIONS FOR FSI Fundamentally, the ILR framework provides a way for multiple government testing programs to interpret a test score in terms of a common government understanding of language proficiency and to link that interpretation to a set of personnel decisions. As discussed above, however, although the ILR framework defines some of the context for the FSI testing program and the interpretation of the scores it produces, it cannot provide the full level of detail needed to design and validate a test for FSI.
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From page 68...
... It would still be possible to maintain the framework's role in coordinating language proficiency personnel policies across government agencies by mapping a new FSI test score to the skill-level descriptions. There are a variety of techniques to setting cut scores that can be used to perform such a mapping.
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Key Terms

  • language proficiency
  • foreign service
  • target language
  • fsi test
  • service officers

  • testing program
  • testing programs
  • fsi testing
  • test scores
  • personnel policies

  • test score
  • framework provides
  • detailed understanding
  • language testing
  • government language

  • government testing
  • ilr level
  • key aspects
  • personnel decisions
  • specific tasks

  • principled approach
  • test development
  • test performances
  • elicit performances
  • reflect key

  • coordinate personnel
  • oral proficiency
  • validity argument
  • common government
  • nel policies


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