Danny Lobsenz ‘25
Every year, St. Andrew’s language students take a break from their regular language curriculum to participate in the Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL). Some students dread this testing while others look forward to the feedback provided.
The AAPPL test consists of four separate sections designed to assess students on interpersonal listening and speaking, presentational writing, interpretive reading, and interpretive listening. St. Andrew’s teachers usually spend at least two classes giving the assessment.
According to the Head of the Language Department, Ms. Daphne Clyburn, “When we first started administering AAPPL, we gave it twice a year […] and then we realized that was too many times to give AAPPL, so we thought let’s change and give it once a year in January because that is when we do course recommendations.”
Sophomore Kamil Owoyemi agrees with this change, stating, “It is definitely a positive” and adding, “It got really repetitive.” He said that students can still compare their scores from year to year to see their improvement.
Ms. Clyburn supports the testing.
“Not only is it helping us understand our students’ proficiencies, but I think it is also helping us as teachers start to see where we can be better-aligned level to level in terms of the topics we are discussing in class,” she said. “The test also helps us see what topics we’re covering, what topics we’re not covering and helps become more coherent as a department.”
Owoyemi likewise finds the test useful. “I think that [the AAPPL] is a good measurement of skill because it tests you on all sorts of things.” He said that the test also shows improvement: “For Mandarin, [the teacher] gives us our test result back from last year, usually one week before we take this year’s AAPPL, so you get to see how you have improved.”
Does the ungraded nature of the tests prompt students to take them less seriously? Owoyemi doesn’t think so: “I think, at least in Mandarin, most people take it seriously … but it is also used to determine what class you are in next year.”
Junior Miles Franklin disagrees. He feels that “people don’t put much weight into it.” He suggests that, to better motivate students, the school should “emphasize some benefits it might have for you or make a shorter test to show your benchmark or where you are at.” He ultimately feels that more information about the test would be advantageous to students.
Ms. Clyburn wants students to know that “The AAPPL test can help shed light on your strengths as well as areas to work on.”
“The thing about the report is that it gives you tangible strategies that you can work on,” Clyburn said. “I would encourage students to look at the test not as showing what they cannot do but showing what they can do.”
Furthermore, she said that students should “look at it as an opportunity to receive good feedback on ways that they can grow.”
Photograph via ACTFL
