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 description of expected ability, the learner is able to understand facts / factual content in terms of main ideas, supporting details, sequence of events and can sometimes detect emotional overtones and understand implications. The skills to be assessed include non-participatory listening in the ability to understand main ideas, explicitly stated supporting details, sequence of events, cause and effect and can draw simple inferences.