Assessment of Language Competence (ALC)

Congratulations to Broughton Anglican College, winner of the ALC earlybird registration prize of a $200 voucher from the Foreign Language Bookshop!

What are the ALC certificates? 

The Assessment of Language Competence Certificates are designed to celebrate and enhance the learning of languages in Australia, New Zealand, the Asia-Pacific region. The skills testing program includes listening and reading comprehension tasks in a multiple choice format designed to be both challenging and to enable all students to experience success. The ALC tests are conduced in schools.

The materials take into account current research in the assessment of languages as well as the extensive experience of practising teachers.

Each participating student receives a certificate which describes the skills they have demonstrated in listening and reading. The schools can also purchase a report which provides detailed information about each student's performance against the difficulty level of test items as well as the school's performance against all other schools for a particular language and certificate level.

Languages

• Chinese Certificates 1 and 2
• French Certificates 1, 2 and 3
• German Certificates 1, 2 and 3
• Indonesian Certificate 1 and 2
• Italian Certificates 1, 2 and 3
• Japanese Certificates 1, 2 and 3

Tasks 

Students respond to realistic texts and situations using multiple choice format.

There is no need to teach to particular topics for the ALC tests. Topics are not advertised beforehand so as to enable all students, regardless of state or country, to have equal access to the materials in the tests.

ALC tasks also draw on students’ knowledge and understanding of language beyond the topic level. This includes their sociocultural knowledge, their cognitive skills, their knowledge of the structure of language and of the purposes of language, and their knowledge of how texts are organised.

Certificate 1* - a listening only test of approximately 25 minutes

Certificate 2** -  a listening test of approximately 30 minutes and a 30 minute reading test

Certificate 3*** - as per Certificate 2

* for students at upper primary to lower secondary school with 80-100 hours of prior language study

** for secondary students with 100-200 hours of prior language study