1. Introducing the MLAT-E Spanish at LTRC 2005

Dan Reed and Charles Stansfield will give a poster presentation entitled “Introducing the Modern Language Aptitude Test for Spanish-Speaking Children” at the 27th Annual Language Testing Research Colloquium to be held in Ottawa, Canada July 20-22, 2005.

Here is a summary of the presentation:

This poster introduces the MLAT-Elementary for Spanish speakers (MLAT-ES). The MLAT-ES is intended to serve Spanish-speaking children in the United States as well as students in Spanish-speaking countries. Stansfield and Reed (2003; 2004) and Reed and Stansfield (2004) reported on the developmental stages of the MLAT-ES, field testing in Costa Rica, subsequent revisions, and the decision to norm the test on 1000+ examinees in Hispanic countries. Students in these countries were chosen for the norming study rather than students in the U.S. in order to ensure that examinees had a level of Spanish proficiency and literacy that is sufficient for the valid measurement of the construct, “language learning aptitude.” Criterion-related evidence of the validity of the MLAT-ES will be reported on the poster based on correlations between the MLAT-ES and grades in language classes and teacher estimates of students’ foreign language learning abilities. Potential uses of the MLAT-ES with Spanish-speaking children in the U.S. will be discussed including selection, placement and guidance. In conjunction with information from psycho-educational test batteries, background information, interviews, etc. the MLAT-ES can also be used to diagnose a foreign language learning disability. In all cases, U.S. students who do poorly on this instrument will require further evaluation in order to determine whether their low score was due to something other than poor aptitude, such as low-proficiency in Spanish, weak reading skills in Spanish, a lack of motivation, or dyslexia.
 

Back to the top

2. Presentation on MLAT-E Spanish at LTRC 2004

Back to the top

3. Jul 2003, John Carroll, Founder of the MLAT, Dies at Age 87

John Bissell (Jack) Carroll, principal developer of the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), passed away peacefully in his home in Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 1, 2003, at the age of 87. Born in Hartford, Conn., in 1916, Carroll developed passions for music and language early in life. An excellent pianist and organist, he considered becoming a musician, and was in fact admitted to the American Guild of Organists at the age of 17. However, his interest in language and the belief that he could make his greatest contributions through academic pursuits resulted in his focusing on language throughout a professional career that spanned over 50 years.

Carroll attended Wesleyan University where he majored in Classics and graduated summa cum laude in 1937. He attended the Summer Linguistics Institute at the University of Michigan that same year. Then, he enrolled in a doctoral program in Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His interest in language led him to focus on the study of verbal aptitude as a graduate student. His dissertation, A Factor Analysis of Verbal Abilities, was completed in 1941.

A student of prominent linguists and psychologists, Whorf, Sapir and Skinner, he had a long and illustrious career as a research psychologist. Carroll soon rose to prominence for his many contributions to psychology, particularly in the areas of intelligence theory, verbal learning, cognition, verbal aptitude, and learning theory, and for his application of new statistical methodologies to the study and analysis of research data.

In the early 1950s, Carroll applied for a contract to develop a foreign language learning aptitude test for the US Army. Although the contract was given to someone else, Carroll began a research program with support from the Carnegie Foundation that culminated in the publication (with Stanley Sapon) of the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) in 1959. Carroll also published numerous articles on the subject of foreign language aptitude, which he described as consisting of four components: phonetic coding ability (the auditory component), grammatical sensitivity, rote learning ability, and inductive language learning ability. Ironically, the MLAT soon became the most frequently used language aptitude test of certain US Government Agencies, and Carroll's writings on foreign language aptitude remain the most comprehensive and authoritative treatments of the subject to this day.

During his lifetime, Carroll held a number of academic positions, being a professor at Mt. Holyoke College, Harvard University, and the University of North Carolina. In addition, he served as Senior Research Psychologist at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. He was the author of numerous books and articles, publishing his 800-page magnum opus, Human Cognitive Abilities, in 1993, more than a decade after his retirement from academia. In 2002, he received the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation. If you wish to read a published interview with Dr. Carroll about the development of the MLAT, click here.

Back to the top

4. SLTI Cosponsors the 2nd Annual Conference of the East Coast Organization of Language Testers (ECOLT)

SLTI--along with Georgetown University, the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) and the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)--cosponsored the second annual conference of the East Coast Organization of Language Testers (ECOLT), which was held Thursday March 20 at the Center for Applied Linguistics and Friday March 21 at Georgetown University, both in Washington, DC. The title of the conference was "U.S. Trends in Language Testing for Accountability and Security" and Dr. Lyle Bachman was the plenary speaker. Read more about the ECOLT conference at the conference web site:

http://www.georgetown.edu/users/pmw2/ecolt

Back to the top

PROJECT COMPLETED

5. Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination Program

Second Language Testing, Inc. is pleased to announce that it has completed development of the written examination portion of the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination. In January 2001, a consortium consisting of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), SLTI, and Cooperative Personnel Services (CPS) had received a contract from the Administrative Office of the US Courts to develop the FCICE in Spanish and to administer the operation. NCSC developed the FCICE oral examination, SLTI developed the written examination, and CPS collected fees, administered the test, and sent out score reports. NCSC has been responsible COMPLETED for the development of a highly-successful, multi-state court interpreters licensing examination over the past five years. CPS develops, administers, and scores the California court interpreter licensing examination. NCSC was the prime contractor for the FCICE.

SLTI is honored to have had this important test development assignment. It continued our past work in the interface between translation/interpretation, testing, and language proficiency. Since its founding in 1994, SLTI has been developing translation tests for the federal government and translating standardized tests for states and for other testing companies. SLTI also develops tests of language skills for various governmental and corporate clients.

For more information on the FCICE exam, following this link: http://www.cps.ca.gov/fcice-spanish

Back to the top

6. SLTI Presents Paper at Language Assessment Ethics Conference

Dr. Dan Reed, an SLTI associate and professor at Indiana University, presented a paper with SLTI President Charles W. Stansfield entitled "The use of the MLAT in the assessment of foreign language learning disability - What's at stake?" at the Language Assessment Ethics Conference in Pasadena, California. The conference was held May 16-18, 2002. Here is the abstract of the paper that Reed and Stansfield presented:

The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) is used by some schools and government agencies to identify students who have language learning difficulties, and to help determine whether some students might even have a specific learning disability in this regard: a foreign language learning disability. Students claiming to have a foreign language learning disability may or may not have been previously classified as learning disabled (LD) on the basis of a diagnosis of another disability, such as dyslexia or attention deficit disorder. Furthermore, such students typically have normal intelligence and have exhibited success in their other academic classes. Several researchers and scholars have written about this possibility of a learning disability specifically related to language learning (c.f. Gajar, 1987; Goodman, Freed, and McManus, 1990; Schwartz, 1997; Sparks and Javorsky, 2000).

A range of fairness issues is at stake when students are (or are not) assessed for language aptitude. These issues include placement of students in language programs that have curricular options such as "streams," eligibility for accommodations, and even decisions regarding exemption from a foreign language requirement. This paper will examine these issues with a duel focus on the validity of the assessment and the implications of diagnosis (or no diagnosis). The stakes and stakeholders will be discussed in light of specific policies of individual schools as well as in the context of requirements at state and federal levels.

Back to the top