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Industry Leading
Language Testing
in 100+ languages.
Language Testing Services
ALTA Language Services is a leader in language testing for government agencies, healthcare organizations, and businesses nationwide. Our language testing team develops and administers thousands of valid and reliable language assessments in more than 100+ languages each year. Organizations that rely on a multilingual workforce partner with ALTA to provide a reliable, easy to implement, and affordable language testing platform that objectively measures and reports language performance for all types of bilingual positions.
When you contact us to learn more about language proficiency assessments, we will listen closely and work with you to determine the testing solution that best meets your needs. To learn more about the types of language tests offered and the ways that leading organizations in diverse industries derive value from our language testing service, please read on or contact a testing account manager through the contact form on this page.
Types of Language Tests
Language tests work best when they are designed and developed to measure specific language skills such as Speaking and Listening, Writing Proficiency, Reading Comprehension, the ability to Translate text, or the ability to Interpret spoken language. ALTA language tests measure language proficiency for a wide variety of jobs using one or more of our language test types. Our testing team will help your organization match a bilingual position to the appropriate test type and determine a legally defensible proficiency level, whether you hire bilingual customer service representatives, nurse practitioners, law enforcement officers, sales representatives, flight attendants, personal bankers, physicians, government linguists, legal document reviewers, or any other position where language matters.
- The Speaking and Listening Assessment: This test measures how well candidates can speak and understand the language when spoken.
- The Written Assessment: This test measures the candidate’s ability to write in the target language.
- The Reading Assessment: This test verifies whether or not the candidate can read the language at the required skill level.
- The Interpretation Assessment: This test verifies whether or not the candidate can provide a consecutive interpretation between two speakers in English and the target language.
- The Translation Assessment: This test verifies whether or not the candidate can translate material written in English into the target language, or material written in the target language into English.
If one of our standard tests does not meet your needs, we develop custom tests in any of the 100+ languages that we regularly assess. Contact us to schedule a free consultation where we will focus on your language testing needs and answer your questions.
Language Tests by Industry
Two decades of developing and administering language proficiency tests for different types of organizations has helped us to gain a deep understanding of the language needs that apply to distinct industries, from government at the federal, state, and local level, to healthcare, legal, financial, global recruitment, travel and hospitality. Our standard proficiency tests, available in 100+ languages, are designed and developed to assess general language proficiency that applies to a variety of job types within different industries. Our Job Analysis process defines the language requirements for any job in any industry, recommends the best test, and sets a legally defensible cut-score. For industries that rely on specific language skills and terminology, we have developed custom suites of language tests, such as our award winning language assessments developed in partnership with Kaiser Permanente for Healthcare organizations, and our custom Government and Legal language testing solutions. ALTA language tests are a valuable tool in the recruitment and training processes for major airlines, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, U.S. government agencies, and businesses of all sizes that serve a multilingual clientele or are looking to expand internationally.
- Medical Language Tests: these tests measure the language skills of healthcare professionals, from nurse practitioners and physicians to administrative staff and medical interpreters.
- Legal Language Tests: these tests will allow you to verify the language skill level of legal professionals who perform foreign language legal document reviews, interpreters, translators, and administrative staff.
- Government Language Tests: this suite of proficiency tests with results reported on the ILR scale is trusted by U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as by law enforcement professionals and city governments nationwide.
- Customer Service Language Tests: this suite of language testing services is designed to help organizations employing multilingual customer service providers, from multilingual call-centers, to airlines and companies engaged in social media customer outreach initiatives.
Contact us today to learn more about how our standard and custom tests may help your organization to successfully reach out across language and culture barriers.
The Languages We Test
ALTA is unique among language service providers in the breadth of language tests that we offer to government, healthcare, and business organizations. We are able to provide language proficiency testing in more than 100+ languages anywhere in the world by harnessing the talents of linguists and subject matter experts with whom we have worked for over thirty years on translation, language training, and language testing solutions. Take a look around and you will find several organizations that test common languages such as Spanish, English, or French. Even if these organizations adhered to the same strict test development and quality assurance processes as ALTA, they do not have the resources or expertise to develop and administer truly global language testing – and they often refer their clients with multilingual needs to us! If your organization only needs to assess the performance of Spanish speaking customer service representatives, then ALTA has the best solution. If you also need to assess Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hmong, Indonesian, Russian, Finnish, Pashto, Igbo, or Japanese, chances are that only ALTA has the best solution. To see a full list, please visit our Languages We Test page. If you do not see the language you need, contact us to learn about our custom test development process.
Valid and Reliable Language Testing
ALTA adheres to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing when developing and validating our assessments. Among the organizations that rely on us to measure and report the language proficiency of their multilingual workforce are U.S. government agencies, global corporations, national healthcare providers, financial institutions, and global non-profit organizations.
ALTA’s language tests are developed in-house by an experienced team of test developers who specialize in creating reliable language performance measurement tools. Our language assessments are delivered through a secure online and telephonic testing system, in many cases available 24/7, that decreases administrative burden and streamlines the testing process. Setting us apart from other affordable language solutions, our assessments are scored by trained expert evaluators who are educated native speakers of the target language – not by an algorithm or a person who speaks the target as a second language. Our evaluator training program and strict quality assurance system provide for the highest levels of inter-rater reliability in the language testing industry. With little or no scheduling time required, and results guaranteed within two business days or sooner, our unparalleled suite of language testing tools will provide value to your organization as you define and implement your language strategy.
What Our Testing Clients Are Saying
“Consistently exceeded expectations…”
Don F., Airline Industry
ALTA Language Services has been a valued partner since 1998. Their Language Testing and Language Training areas have consistently exceeded expectations. I highly recommend ALTA’s services.
“ALTA has been outstanding…”
Rick C., Airline Industry
I am employed by a major airline, and we recently transitioned to ALTA for language services for our flight attendant group. The level of cooperation and enthusiasm we have received from ALTA has been outstanding. They successfully developed a new test for our organization that met each and every one of our needs, using current language qualified flight attendants in the development process. ALTA has been prompt in responding to questions, flexible in administering the tests, and timely in forwarding test results. I look forward to our continued business relationship.
“ALTA’s services are exceptional…”
Sherif S., Government Contractor
ALTA has been our main language testing vendor since 2008; their services are exceptional and superbly exemplify the PM triad “Cost, Schedule, Performance.” ALTA’s rigorous test analysis, implantation, evaluation and quality control processes meet the highest standard in their industry. Their customer relationship management skills are extraordinary. They adapt their processes to meet our scheduling requirements and deliver superb results. Their collaborative team-oriented approach ensures deliverables of the highest quality.
We’re proud to have provided services for:
Additional Testing Services & Resources
Beyond Words
Read articles on Language Testing on the ALTA blog:
- Language Testing and Health Care Reform: ALTA and Kaiser Permanente Breaking Cultural Barriers
- Psychometricians: What They Are, and What They Do
- What is the Angoff Method?
- Norm Referenced vs Criterion Referenced Testing
- Multiple Choice Test Development 101
- The Value of Independent Language Testing
Specialized Language Testing Services
ALTA offers a robust catalog of specialized language testing services that have been established for businesses and government agencies, including:
- Medical Language Tests
- Translation Assessment
- Interpreter Assessment
- Language Review Services
- Speaking and Listening Test
- Writing Skills Test
- Reading Comprehension Test
- Tests in 100+ other languages
Our Clients
ALTA provides language testing to industries as diverse as call-centers, airlines, government agencies, and financial institutions. See a list of our Testing clients.
Contact Language Testing
To learn how we can help you with language testing, please fill out our contact form above, or call us at 404.920.3832.
Regularly Requested Testing Languages: View More
- Arabic
- Mandarin
- Cantonese
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Spanish
Frequently Asked Questions:
If you have questions about language proficiency tests, scheduling a test, pricing, the evaluation process, or receiving test results, please read our answers to frequently asked Language Testing questions.