BILC UPDATE Rome Italy June 8 2009 BILC
BILC UPDATE Rome, Italy, June 8, 2009 BILC Secretary & D/Secretary Bureau de Coordination Linguistique Internationale Bureau for International Language Coordination
What Does BILC Do? NATO’s consultative and advisory body for language training and testing issues, since 1966 l l Conference in Spring & Professional Seminar in Fall Responsible for STANAG 6001 Language Testing Seminars l Assistance to National Testing Programmes l Language Programme Assessments l l Other projects
BILC Purpose l Mission: To promote and foster interoperability among NATO and Pf. P nations by furthering standardization of language training and testing. Through exchange of knowledge and best practices, BILC supports the Alliance's operations. l Vision: To lead towards levels of excellence where progress made by one is shared by all.
UPDATE STANAG 6001 l Background: In 2006 NTG/JSSG asked BILC to update STANAG 6001 (Ed. 2) l New Labels & Optional + Levels l Outcome: STANAG 6001 Edition 3 approved by BILC SC at the June 08 Conference l French STANAG 6001 Edition 3 sent to ACT in Dec 08. l Status : Approved by NTG in Oct 08 and promulgated by NSA Feb 09
Ongoing Activities ü Language Testing Seminars ü ü Since 2000, about 300 attendees from 38 nations and 4 NATO offices Advanced Language Testing Seminar (ALTS) ü Target audience: LTS graduates who work in testing
BILC Assistance to National Testing Programmes BIH & GEO l Initial visits in 07 -08 l Recommendations for establishing an official, centralized testing function within the Mo. D l LTS training l Series of workshops l BIH l l Piloting test items in Italy in March 2009 First test administrations in June 2009
Language Programme Assessments l AIM: To Assess Language Training Programmes and Offer Recommendations l Assessment teams have consisted of professionals from Canada, Germany Slovenia, Sweden, UK, and US.
Benchmark Advisory Test (BAT) l Purpose of BAT: To provide an external measure against which nations can compare their national STANAG testing results l Goal: To promote relative parity of scale interpretation and testing instruments across countries l Specs: General language proficiency iaw STANAG 6001 l. Everyday survival and work-related topics l. Some NATO-related topics at higher levels l. Not job-specific
Benchmark Advisory Test (BAT) • Tasking from Allied Command Transformation (ACT) to standardize testing • Survey conducted on need for a NATO-wide Benchmark Advisory Test (BAT) • Items collected from BILC member nations (Voluntary National Contributions) • WG worked 07 -08 via email/web and met 2 X per year
BAT STATUS • ACT made decision on allocation of the first 200 BAT tests • BAT scheduling underway • Report on benchmarking process this conference • Preliminary results will be given at the BILC Seminar in October • Future interest in the BAT will be discussed at SC
Language Needs Analysis- New l Nov 08 Meeting – NTG / Mil Committee – BILC was asked to undertake preliminary review of linguistic requirements of NATO CE Posts. l COA Info sent to ACT – Feb 09 l MN WG meeting during this BILC l Report due Nov 09
QUESTIONS? BILC Website www. bilc. forces. gc. ca BILC email: cda. bilc@forces. gc. ca
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