Home > Events > SLA seminar: Dorry Kenyon (CAL)

SLA seminar: Dorry Kenyon (CAL)

Time: 
Thursday, April 02, 2020 - 5:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Location: 
ONLINE (Zoom)

Contact Kira Gor (kiragor@umd.edu) to be added to the Zoom room. (Please do so in a timely manner--last minute requests are not guaranteed access.)

The ILR Skill Level Descriptions and Language Testing

Abstract: Although they form the basis for the testing of foreign language proficiency in U.S. government agencies, the exact purpose and nature of the Skill Level Descriptions of the U.S. government Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) is often unclear. This talk presents the perspective of a language testing practitioner on understandings and misunderstandings of the ILR Skill Level Descriptions as a basis for foreign language testing, and, within the framework of a principled approach to the development of language tests, discusses potential valid uses for such generalized descriptions of language proficiency.

Bio: Dorry M. Kenyon (PhD, Measurement, Applied Statistics and Evaluation, University of Maryland) currently serves as Senior Fellow for Assessment for the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), Washington, DC. He also currently serves as the Chair of the Expert Panel for the Defense Language Testing and Assessment Project and Chair of the Committee on Foreign Language Assessment for the U.S. Foreign Service Institute for the National Academies of Science. Since having joined CAL in 1987, Dr. Kenyon has gained considerable experience in all aspects of designing, developing, validating, and operationalizing second and foreign language assessments through many large projects at the state, national, and international levels. He has also served as a Senior Advisor on a variety of projects related to developing and researching assessments of the English language and foreign language skills of language learners spanning the ages of pre-school to adult. Prior to joining CAL, he taught German and English as a Foreign/Second Language for seven years in the United States and abroad.

Recommended Reading: I would like to ensure that folks attending the talk have some familiarity with the Skill Level Descriptions of the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR). They should visit the official ILR website and become familiar with the following: