The Foreign Service Journal, October 2022
46 OCTOBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL combined speaking/listening score, reflecting the integrated nature of speaking and listening. Texts on the reading test. While literary and cultural refer- ences may appear in texts that are representative of the type of materials Foreign Service employees may read for work-related tasks, reading materials will not include poetry as a text genre. These changes are in various stages of implementation. For information on the latest status and to prepare for a test, please visit the LTU’s testing reforms website on State Department SharePoint and attend one of the LTU’s monthly online infor- mation sessions. Testing Operations The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to permanent changes in testing. Prior to March 2020, most testing occurred in-person in the LTU or in more than 20 percent of cases by digital video conference (DVC). The move to remote work necessitated a change to telephone testing; and as soon as bandwidth made it feasible, the Language Testing Unit moved to the government- approved WebEx platform. Since January 2021, the LTU has conducted all remote testing on this platform and, with the return to in-person testing post-pandemic, will retain this platform for all remote testing into the foreseeable future. For speaking-only tests, examinees can be at any location. For tests that involve reading, however, examinees must be in a depart- ment facility to maintain the security of the testing materials. Quality Assurance Since 2017, the Language Testing Unit’s Quality Assurance program has ensured the reliability of test scoring and provides an established baseline against which to measure the impact of impending changes to the test. Test review requests from stu- dents typically average about 8 percent of tests per year. Beyond that, the LTU has routinely reviewed more than 20 percent of tests, and that will expand to 50 percent this fall following the recommendations of the NAS report. The LTU has a strong track record, with the consistency of scoring meeting or exceeding testing industry standards. The Language Testing Unit also routinely conducts benchmarking activities with other federal agencies and its counterpart office in the Canadian Foreign Service Institute, with excellent results. The LTU’s tester and examiner training and certification program is one of the most extensive in language testing and includes mandatory training in mitigating unconscious bias for all testing staff. On the test exit survey administered to all exam- inees from January through June 2022, 96 percent of examinees said they were satisfied with their testing experience. When answering a new question introduced in April 2022, 86 percent of respondents stated that the test reflects their future language proficiency needs. More than 70 percent of examinees who had received their test scores thought that their performance on the exam was an accurate reflection of their ability, and an even greater proportion agreed with their scores (79 percent). The Language Testing Unit is confident that the testing reforms will result in even stronger numbers. FSI’s goal is to ensure that language testing reflects the real-world requirements of Foreign Service work and keeps pace with modern developments in applied linguistics and measurement. These are evidence-based, data-driven efforts that include incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accountability principles and addressing the concerns of the workforce. n FSI undertook a parallel yearlong effort to examine training and testing of heritage speakers. S ince the announcement of mandatory language testing for Foreign Service officers in 1958, the FSI Language Proficiency Test has been the sole means of determining speaking and reading scores for the language skills inventory. The test is conducted by FSI’s Language Testing Unit (FSI/SLS/LTU), which supports the conduct of U.S. foreign policy by provid- ing oversight of language tests administered for foreign affairs professionals; scores used to determine assign- ments, tenure, and promotion; testing records mainte- nance; and quality control. For more on the structure and work of the LTU, please see “Lingua Franca” in State Magazine , March 2022. FSI’s Language Testing Unit
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