In May 2003, Second Language Testing Foundation (SLTF) was
incorporated in Maryland as a private
operating foundation. SLTF's application for
nonprofit charitable status was approved by
the IRS. SLTF is funded through public
donations, grants, contracts, and through
the sale of its products. The focus of SLTF
is to increase understanding of issues in
second language testing among educators and
the public. Specifically, the foundation's
mission goals are to promote the appropriate
use of language skills tests, including
language aptitude tests, to develop and/or
conduct research on language skills tests,
and to conduct research on language learners
and formal assessments.
Research and test development
The Foundation conducts research on existing
second language tests, and research that
informs the development of new second
language tests. A specific interest of the
Foundation, at least initially, is research
on the measurement of language learning
aptitude.
Tests of language aptitude
A number of tests of language aptitude will
emerge from the research function of the
Foundation. The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT),
which is currently made available by the
Foundation, is used by government agencies,
missionary groups and private corporations
to identify and then train employees to work
in foreign countries. The MLAT is also used
to determine if a person has a language
learning disability. It is used today by
universities and by psychologists
specializing in learning disabilities who
are confronted by students who repeatedly
fail foreign languages courses while
performing well in other courses.
SLTF also makes available to schools a
version of the above test for elementary
school students. This instrument is called
the Modern Language Aptitude Test-Elementary (MLAT-E).
In 2004, SLTF made available the Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery (PLAB).
This language aptitude test is designed for
junior high and high school students and is
used to help teachers determine a student's
readiness to begin the study of foreign
language and identify the students with a
special talent or "ear for language." The
addition of the PLAB completes SLTF's set of
language aptitude tests by filling in the
age gap between the MLAT-E test takers and
MLAT test takers.
The Second Language Testing Foundation has
also recently made available a Spanish
adaptation of the MLAT-E, the Modern Language Aptitude Test Elementary:
Spanish Version (MLAT-ES). The MLAT-ES
was developed in conjunction with several
schools in Latin America and Spain, and is
intended for native Spanish-speaking
children in grades 3-6 in the USA and in
other countries. The MLAT-ES sprang from
the research of Drs. Charles Stansfield and
Daniel Reed of Michigan State University.
They developed a framework for the creation
of adapted versions of the MLAT for
examinees whose first language is not
English.
Since 2004, SLTF has been working with
Korean linguists to develop a version of the
MLAT-E in Korean. SLTF has also assisted
researchers in developing adaptations of the
MLAT-E in other languages for research
purposes.
Research
SLTI staff and associates give presentations
and present research findings at educational
conferences (American Educational Research
Association, National Council on Measurement
in Education, and the International Language
Testing Research Colloquium) to disseminate
our results and enrich the knowledge base of
researchers and educators on matters pertaining to language
competencies, cognitive skills and testing.
ECOLT
Second Language Testing Foundation is a
founder and sponsor of the East Coast
Conference on Language Testing (ECOLT).
SLTF's president, Dr. Charles W. Stansfield,
was the keynote speaker at the first ECOLT
conference in March 2002. He continues to
serve on the ECOLT executive committee,
which is responsible for planning the ECOLT
conference each year, obtaining financial
support, etc. SLTF prepares the ECOLT
program book and pays for its printing.
Each year, SLTI and SLTF personnel assist in
the management of the ECOLT conference.
About 100 people, many of whom are language
teachers or language specialists working in
the government language community, usually
attend the ECOLT conference. Others are
language educators in the Washington DC
area. Faculty and graduate students from
universities in the Washington DC area also
attend and participate. Other ECOLT
sponsors include the Center for Applied
Linguistics and Georgetown University. To
locate information on the next or most
recent ECOLT conference, click here.
SLTF Summer Internships
In 2005 the Second Language Testing
Foundation (SLTF) set up a summer internship
program. If you are interested in finding
out more about SLTF internships or would
like to apply, please contact us. SLTF interns are expected to
be physically present at SLTF and to work on
SLTF projects. We view the internship as a
chance to gain real-world experience in
language testing matters.
2008
In the summer of 2008, SLTF participated in
the initial year of the Maryland Nonprofit
Leadership Program, run by the Shriver
Center at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County. The Maryland Nonprofit
Leadership Program offers paid summer
internship opportunities in the nonprofit
sector to college juniors, seniors, and
graduate students attending Maryland
institutions. Participating interns work for
ten weeks full-time from June 2nd to August
8th while participating in bi-weekly
seminars in nonprofit management. SLTF
welcomed two interns from the program,
Sunyoung Park and Yujung Son.
Sunyoung Park is entering her third year at
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County
where she is working toward a Master's
degree in TESOL. During her internship at
SLTF, she has worked on processing language
aptitude test orders, drafted test items and
general specifications for a Korean version
of the MLAT-E, reviewed test items and
manual for a UK version of the MLAT-E,
participated in marketing of currently
developed tests and tests being developed,
and initiated contact with Korean publishers
to determine publishing and marketing
possibilities for the Korean version of the
MLAT-E.
Yujung Son is entering her third year at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
where she is pursuing a Master's degree in
Instructional Systems Development with a
concentration on ESOL/Bilingual Education.
During her internship at SLTF, she
participated in various projects including
developing the Korean version of the MLAT-E,
reviewing test items translated into Korean,
and marketing of currently developed tests.
She worked on creating test items, scripts,
and a manual for the Korean MLAT-E and
learned about the different linguistic
structures of Korean and English that are
relevant to language aptitude.
Ming Li, an international student from
China, also interned with SLTF during the
summer of 2008. She is gaining experience in
second language testing by working with SLTF
staff on various projects including marking
item responses for a high-stakes English
language test developed by Pearson Language
Assessments, locating resources for test
item writing, and doing test translation.
Ming Li is pursuing her M.A. in Educational
Assessment, Evaluation, and Testing at
George Mason University. Before her studies
in the United States, she taught English in
China University of Petroleum.
2007
In 2007, Cecilia Zhao was entering her third
year at New York University, where she was
working toward a PhD degree in TESOL, with
an emphasis on second language testing.
During her 2 months internship at SLTF, she
worked mainly on SLTF's language aptitude
tests. She updated the technical manual for
the MLAT, drafted test specifications for
the MLAT-E and wrote items for a new form.
She also reviewed draft items for new forms
of the Defense Language Aptitude Battery and
administered pilot test forms of the DLAB to
examinees, interviewing them afterwards and
writing up the results. She reviewed NAEP
math items for language accessibility, and
reviewed a proposal for an Enhanced
Assessment grant. She prepared data from
several medical interpreter tests for
analysis and conducted classical test
analyses of three tests.
Ching-Ni Hsieh was entering her second year
at Michigan State University, where she was
a doctoral student in Second Language
Studies with an emphasis on second language
testing. During her internship at SLTF,
Ching-Ni worked on test specifications for
the MLAT-E and test items for an additional
form of the MLAT-E. Ching-Ni also
administered pilot test versions of the
DLAB, drafted general specifications for a
Chinese version of the MLAT-E, reviewed
literature on multiple-choice item writing,
updated SLTF language aptitude tests
manuals, and helped draft an outline for an
ESL reading comprehension test. She also
updated the SLTI website and developed an
online MLAT User Survey using SurveyMonkey.
2006
In the summer of 2006, SLTF welcomed
applicants Meredith Mislevy and Graham
Seibert to the staff.
Meredith Mislevy was entering her third year
at the University of Maryland, College Park
where she was working toward a Bachelor of
the Arts degree in Linguistics and
Cognition. During her internship at SLTF,
she has worked on processing language
aptitude test orders, interacted with MLAT
customers, authored entries on "Language
Aptitude", "John B. Carroll", the "MLAT" and
the "PLAB" for Wikipedia, drafted test items
for a higher-level version of the MLAT,
reviewed NAEP items for accessible language
and worked on updating the Second Language
Testing website.
Graham Seibert read about Charles Stansfield
in the Washington Post two years ago and
contacted him to ask for some
second-language test materials to reference
for a paper he was writing for a course in
assessment design in the University of
Maryland's Department of Educational
Measurement and statistics. Graham's
interest in education goes back to his
experience as a parent, his service on
school boards, and his time as a private
school teacher of foreign languages before
entering his Master's program. His first
career as a computer consultant involved
extensive travel abroad, during which time
he learned Spanish, French, German and
Portuguese and became interested in the
process of language acquisition itself. In
2006, Charles Stansfield offered Graham an
internship at SLTF. While at SLTF, Graham
applied his knowledge of statistics to
real-world problems, and used his experience
in foreign language and education to
represent SLTF to its test users. He used
his background in technology to become
involved in the operationalization of the
computer-based version of the MLAT.
2005
SLTF's first summer intern was Mr. Sean
McGrew, a doctoral candidate in educational
linguistics at the University of
Pennsylvania. Sean spent June, July, and
August 2005 at SLTF. Using his background in
statistical research methodology, he ran
statistics using SPSS and SAS, edited final
reports for test development projects, and
contributed to monthly and final reports.
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