SHAPE UpdateBILC Professional Seminar

Bucharest, Romania

5 - 9 October 2008

☺Mike Adubato

SHAPE Language Testing Centre

(mike.adubato@shape.nato.int)

Individuals assigned to an ACO PE position should arrive with a valid STANAG 6001

certificate

Those who arrive without one will be tested by the SLTC

NOTE:

This policy is for ALL ACO postings however, outside of

SHAPE, none of the other sub-commands seem to follow the

Chief of Staff’s policy!

In processing Data

1 Jan – 15 Sep 2008

Total in processed: 185

Certificates provided: 119

Tests passed: 24

Tests failed: 13

Pending: (you do the math!)

In processing Data

by nations

Belgium – 0 of 7 provided certificates

Bulgaria – 0 of 1 provided certificates

Czech Republic – 1 of 3 provided certificates

Denmark – 1 of 1 provided certificates

Estonia – 1 of 5 provided certificates

France – 1 of 8 provided certificates

In processing Data

by nations

Germany – 3 of 19 provided certificates

Greece – 30 of 32 provided certificates

Hungary – 3 of 3 provided certificates

Italy – 9 of 19 provided certificates

Latvia – 0 of 1 provided certificates

Lithuania – 2 of 4 provided certificates

In processing Data

by nations

Netherlands – 0 of 5 provided certificates

Norway – 6 of 8 provided certificates

Poland – 1 of 2 provided certificates

Portugal – 4 of 5 provided certificates

Romania – 3 of 3 provided certificates

Slovakia – 1 of 6 provided certificates

In processing Data

by nations

Spain – 15 of 15 provided certificates

Turkey – 38 of 38 provided certificates

NOTE:

A valid certificate is one that meets the PE post requirements!

example: if the post requires SLP 3333 & the certificate presented is 3332, that is NOT a

valid certificate!

So what does all this mean anyway??

Nations are sending their people to NATO without testing them

Nations are sending their people to NATO linguistically unqualified

In some cases, nations are sending people to NATO with certificates that are

questionable!

SHAPE Tests

Bi-level reading test still being developed

Last week, it was pre-tested (2nd time) at the Belgian language school in Lombardijse

SHAPE Tests

Listening tests are still in the early stages

Collecting texts/audioWriting items

Moderating items

SHAPE Tests

SHAPE is also looking into “buying” tests

University of Westminster was visitedDELASO was also contacted

SHAPE Tests

If your nation out-sources testing, please provide me with some

information –

Name of organization & contact details – email and/or phone number

For BILC photos –

www.adubato.smugmug.com/travel

Questions:

There are no dumb ones

But we can change that!