Reading LAT

Reading

For the Reading LAT, the ELC uses the Adaptive Reading Test developed by the BYU’s Center for Language Studies. This test is also based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. It includes test items at the Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior levels. It does not include Novice because if students are not successful with the Intermediate items, they have a Novice proficiency level. The test is computer-adaptive, so the students answer items at one level, and depending on how they answer the items, then answer items that are above or below the level of items they just answered. Because the test is adaptive, each student will experience a different test. The items could be different, and the length of the test could be different. The minimum amount of questions a student would need to answer are ten questions and the maximum is forty-five. The maximum length of time a test could take is ninety minutes, but the average is around forty minutes. Each item is timed and has a general standard length of time to listen to or read the passage and then answer the question. Intermediate questions are sixty seconds, Advanced questions are one-hundred and twenty seconds, and Superior questions are two-hundred and forty seconds.

Example passages of the Listening LAT are shown below.

Example Intermediate Passage

November 25

The 50th Annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner

Noon—3:00 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 25, in the Cypress Room at the Westcott Fairgrounds, 1400 Fairground Road. Free. To donate turkeys, pies, hams, cakes, or clothing, call James at 506-8329.

Rationale

This text meets the content requirements for the Intermediate level. It is an announcement from a newspaper that was selected with low accuracy expectations. The examinee will be asked to pick out some of the main words in the text. Examinees with abilities below the targeted level may locate key words but misapply them and select an incorrect option.

Example Advanced Passage

Seven people were injured when a taxicab and a limousine collided early Sunday in San Francisco’s lower Nob Hill neighborhood, police said.

The crash happened at the intersection of Jones and Sutter Streets at about 2:00 a.m., Officer Philip Fleming said. He had no information on who was at fault in the collision. The impact sent one of the vehicles into a light pole, knocking loose the streetlight cover, which fell and injured two pedestrians, Fleming said. Five occupants in the vehicles were injured.

All seven people were transported to hospitals, with non-life-threatening injuries, Fleming said.

Rationale

This text meets the content requirements for the Advanced level. It is a news item reporting concrete facts about a traffic accident that was selected with the expectation that both Intermediate and Advanced-level readers would understand the main idea—there was an accident—but those below the Advanced level would be uncertain about the details.

Example Superior Passage

Congress is back from its July 4 recess, and an estimated 2 million Americans have run out of unemployment benefits. The reason is that the Senate failed to agree, before leaving for the holiday, on renewing a program that provides extended jobless benefits—for as long as 99 weeks—during the economic downturn. Lawmakers of both parties say they want to restore the benefits but could not agree on whether the $35 billion cost should be financed by adding to the deficit or by redirecting previously allocated—although at this point unspecified—stimulus funds. This unnecessary argument is causing real damage to Americans who find themselves without work through no fault of their own.

Drawing the deficit line at additional unemployment benefits is shortsighted because, if anything, the economy could benefit from more stimulus spending, not less. Unemployment benefits, which are most apt to be immediately plowed back into the economy, are about the most stimulative form of spending. Extending the benefits is both fiscally sensible and morally decent.

In theory, longer benefit periods reduce recipients’ incentives to find work. In the current economy, with jobs scarce and unemployment benefits hardly lavish, the program is probably not discouraging many people from accepting available work. Nearly half the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, and one-fourth have been without work for a year.

Unemployment benefits—which average just over $300 a week—are an essential lifeline. The Senate needs to extend the length of the benefits. The Senate should also offer more help to states to pay for Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for the poor. There is no good reason to oppose this help, and there is every reason to offer it. The cost has been trimmed from $24 billion to $16 billion. It is fully paid for, as is the rest of the measure, which would extend expiring tax breaks and renew a particularly effective program to provide jobs to unemployed, low-income parents.

States are staggering under the impact of the economic slump, with revenue down and demand for social services up. Some 30 states were counting on the Medicaid money to balance their budgets, as required by law. If the Medicaid funds are not forthcoming, the other cuts states would be forced to make would further slow the economic recovery. Passing this package is the right thing to do—and fiscally prudent too.

Rationale

This text meets the content requirements for the Superior level. The first paragraph analyzes the status of the legislation and the basis of disagreement between the two political parties. The author ends the paragraph by stating an opinion. Paragraph 2 provides support for the author’s opinion. Paragraph 3 provides an opposing view and then discredits the view. Paragraph 4 changes the subject slightly, discussing another piece of legislation that has not been passed and analyzing the characteristics of the legislation. Paragraph 5 supports the opinion that the legislation should be passed. There are emotional overtones in the words chosen. States are staggering under the impact of the economic slump contains imagery to convey the author’s belief that the measures must be taken.