Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessments
(MLPA)—Spanish
Purpose: To assess the Spanish language skills of students completing
high school foreign language study
Target: Students graduating from U.S. high
schools
Method and format: Performance-based; group or individual administration
The reading test is multiple choice. Writing is a situationally based
contextualized task. Speaking and listening are tape-mediated contextualized
tasks. Content: Test content is based on general interest topics. The tests assess proficiency
in reading (Contextualized Reading Assessment [CoRA], 35 items); writing
(Contextualized Writing Assessment [CoWA], 50 minutes); speaking (Contextualized
Speaking Assessment
[CoSA], 20 minutes); and listening (Contextualized Listening Assessment
[CoLA], 35 items). Contextualized tasks ask students to use language
in authentic contexts.
Advance organizers or warm-up tasks precede each test section.
Administration
time: Approximately 2 hours total time
Levels and scoring: The MLPA assesses
language proficiency at the Intermediate-Low level on the language
proficiency scales of the American Council on
the Teaching of Foreign Languages (CACTFL) http://www.actfl.org Reading
is scored on text content, organizational characteristics, and cultural
content scales; writing is rated pass/fail using a holistic rubric.
Reliability/validity: "Reliability coefficients from data collected
to date are all in the acceptable range; items and tasks have been extensively
field
tested and refined;
tasks are authentic and varied" (publisher's statement). |