FY 2020 Marine Corps Entry Level Training Continuum Foreign Language Testing
This MARADMIN establishes policy for administering Defense Language Proficiency Tests (DLPT) to Marines at The Basic School (TBS) and Marine Corps Recruit Depots (MCRD) during Fiscal Year 2020. It creates a five-tier priority system for testing recruits and TBS students who self-report foreign language capabilities, with Priority 1 languages including Arabic, Chinese-Mandarin, Russian, and 26 other strategic languages. Only Lower Range Listening and Reading Comprehension tests will be administered due to time and capacity constraints, and individuals will be tested in only one language during entry-level training.
Issued: December 17, 2019
1. Purpose. This MARADMIN promulgates Marine Corps policy for the administration of foreign language proficiency testing at The Basic School (TBS) and Marine Corps Recruit Depots (MCRD) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020.<br> 2. Background. The Marine Corps employs the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) to measure individual foreign language capability. In accordance with references (A), (B) and (C), TBS students and recruits identified as having a self-professed foreign language capability will be administered the appropriate DLPT to the greatest extent possible. In accordance with reference (D), the Director of Intelligence (DIRINT), in his role as the USMC Senior Language Authority, determines which foreign language capabilities are required. Due to limited capacity to administer the DLPT at TBS and the MCRDs, this MARADMIN provides amplifying guidance to references (A) and (B). Any modifications will be promulgated via separate MARADMIN.<br> 3. Validating Proficiency. The DLPT family of tests includes the Very Low Range (VLR), Lower Range (LR), and Upper Range (UR) DLPT, as well as the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Two Skill Oral Proficiency Interview (TSOPI). The DLPTs measure proficiency in Listening Comprehension (LC), Reading Comprehension (RC), and Speaking Comprehension (S) using the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) proficiency skill levels, ranging from 0 to 5. Due to limitations on time and testing lab capacity, only the Lower Range Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension tests will be administered at TBS and the MCRDs.<br> 4. Test Prioritization. Test administration staff at TBS and the MCRDs will use the following five priorities for determining which TBS students and recruits will be tested. TBS students and recruits shall be tested in only one language; any additional language testing may occur after TBS or Boot Camp and School of Infantry/Marine Combat Training within the Marine's first term of enlistment. All languages are listed with their full description and their trigraph as reflected in the Marine Corps Total Force System (MCTFS).<br> 4.a. Priority 1 – TBS students and recruits who self-professed foreign language capability in one of the following languages will have first priority for testing. These languages are testable in Listening and Reading Comprehension. TBS students and recruits who report a skill in an Arabic dialect will only take the Arabic-Modern Standard (ARB) DLPT for ease of administration and recording of capabilities.<br> Language Name Trigraph<br> Arabic-Modern Standard ARB<br> Bulgarian BUL<br> Chinese-Mandarin CMN<br> Dutch NLD<br> French FRA<br> German DEU<br> Hebrew HEB<br> Hindi HIN<br> Indonesian IND<br> Italian ITA<br> Japanese JPN<br> Korean KOR<br> Norwegian NOR<br> Pashto-Afghan PBT<br> Persian-Afghan (Dari) PRS<br> Language Name Trigraph<br> Persian-Farsi PES<br> Polish POL<br> Portuguese-Brazilian QPB<br> Portuguese-European QPE<br> Punjabi-Western PAN<br> Russian RUS<br> Somali SOM<br> Swahili SWA<br> Swedish SWE<br> Tagalog TGL<br> Thai THA<br> Turkish TUR<br> Ukrainian UKR<br> Urdu URD<br> Vietnamese VIE<br> 4.b. Priority 2 – TBS students and recruits who self-professed foreign language capability in Spanish will have second priority for testing. This language is testable in Listening and Reading Comprehension.<br> 4.c. Priority 3 – TBS students and recruits who self-professed foreign language capability in one of the following languages will have third priority for testing. These languages are testable in Listening and Reading Comprehension.<br> Language Name Trigraph<br> Albanian SQI<br> Azerbaijani AZE<br> Burmese MYA<br> Cambodian KHM<br> Chinese-Amoy NAN<br> Czech CES<br> Danish DAN<br> Greek ELL<br> Haitian-Creole HAT<br> Language Name Trigraph<br> Hungarian HUN<br> Icelandic ISL<br> Kurdish-Kurmanji KMR<br> Kurdish-Sorani SDH<br> Lao LAO<br> Lithuanian LIT<br> Romanian RON<br> Serbian-Croatian HBS<br> Slovenian SLV<br> 4.d. Priority 4 – TBS students and recruits who self-professed foreign language capability in one of the following languages will have fourth priority for testing. These languages are testable in Listening or Reading Comprehension, but not both.<br> Language Name Trigraph<br> Amharic AMH<br> Cebuano CEB<br> Chavacano CBK<br> Language Name Trigraph<br> Chinese-Cantonese YUE<br> Hausa HAU<br> Tausug TSG<br> 4.e. Priority 5 – If a TBS student or recruit who self-professed foreign language capability in any language not listed above, that TBS student or recruit will not test during TBS or Boot Camp. All other languages are generally only testable via an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the administration of which places an undue burden on available training time at TBS or Boot Camp. TBS students or recruits will not test in Arabic dialects during TBS or Boot Camp, due to the necessity to pair Arabic dialect DLPT scores with Arabic-Modern Standard (ARB) DLPT scores.<br> 5. Administration. TBS students who take a DLPT before TBS (e.g., at a college, university, or academy) do not need to test again. If previous test records do not appear in MCTFS, TBS administration staff should work with the TBS students previous academic institution to have their DLPT scores entered in MCTFS.<br> 6. Applicability. This MARADMIN is applicable to the Marine Corps Total Force.<br> 7. Point of contact. Primary POC is: MarineCorps_ForeignLanguageProgram@usmc.mil.<br> 8. Release authorized by Ms. J. D. Cole, SNIS, Senior Advisor for Analysis to the Director of Intelligence, U.S. Marine Corps.