The Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) is designed to assess the target language proficiency of native speakers of English who have learned a foreign language as a second language and speakers of other languages with very strong English skills. The DLPT measures proficiency as defined by the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Skill Level Descriptions.
The DLPT is designed to measure proficiency in the target language regardless of how it has been acquired; test content is not tied to any particular language-training program. The passages included in the test are sampled from authentic materials and real-life sources such as signs, newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, the Internet, etc. The passages cover a broad range of content areas, including social, cultural, political, economic, geographic, scientific, and military topics.
The reading and listening comprehension tests are based on a wide variety of realistic written and spoken materials. The content is sampled from authentic sources such as signs, newspapers, radio broadcasts, etc. The test includes multiple choice questions with four options in English. The listening and reading sections have 100 items each. Test administration time is approximately 75 minutes for the listening section.
The following Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Skill Level Descriptions (SLDs) describe proficiency as the functional ability to comprehend written language that reflects current usage. The SLDs characterize proficiency ranging from no communicative ability to mastery. They constitute an ordinal scale that includes six ranked base levels from 0 to 5. They illustrate, but do not exhaustively characterize, the proficiency a person may demonstrate at a given level on the scale.
Control of a base level (Levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) typically implies control of the previous levels' aspects. A higher level of performance in one aspect does not justify a higher general proficiency rating. Level 5 includes the features of all levels. Still, as with all levels, Level 5 is a range and performance will vary.
There are plus levels for levels 0 through 4. Plus levels describe proficiency that substantially exceeds one base level and does not fully meet the criteria of the next base level. To merit a plus level, the demonstrated proficiency must match the plus level description and not be merely a strong performance at the base level.
The SLDs describe four aspects of language proficiency: functional ability (color coded green), precision of forms and meanings (red), content meaningfulness (black), and contextual appropriateness (blue). Functional ability refers to the communicative acts or tasks that an individual can accomplish. There are no functional abilities specific to the plus levels. Precision of forms and meanings refers to accuracy, range, and complexity. Content meaningfulness refers to the relevance and substantive coverage of topics. Contextual appropriateness refers to register, acceptability, and appropriateness of language for the intended audience.