Heritage Language Class.

Heritage Language Proficiency Testing

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Connecting with one’s heritage through language is more than learning words; it’s embracing an identity and opening doors to a multilingual future. Bilingual and multilingual individuals are highly valued in today’s global job market, often enjoying better career opportunities and higher salaries.

Avant offers a clear, accessible pathway for heritage language learners through a selection of assessments that are tailored for different types of situations. Read more about the purpose for each type of assessment.

Our online assessment leads to Sceaux de bilinguisme des États, the Sceau mondial de bilinguisme, Avant badges numériques, and credit-by-exam which showcase proficiency and open opportunities in higher education and beyond.

For teachers in heritage programs, we provide essential resources to enhance teaching, understand assessment results, and enrich curriculums. Join us in nurturing the next generation of bilingual and multilingual leaders, celebrating their unique cultural identities.

Avant Tests for Heritage Programs

STAMP Test 4S.

STAMP 4S
Évaluation des 4 compétences pour adolescents et adultes
Lecture Écriture Écoute Parler
STAMPe Test

STAMP 4Se
Évaluation des 4 compétences pour les écoles primaires
Lecture Écriture Écoute Parler
STAMP WS

STAMP WS
Évaluation des compétences pour adolescents et adultes
Écriture Parler
STAMP ASL

STAMP pour ASL (langue des signes américaine)
Évaluation de compétence en Langue des Signes Américaine à 2 niveaux
Réceptif Expressif
Patrimoine Espagnol

SHL
Test de langue patrimoniale espagnole pour les programmes patrimoniaux
Lecture Écriture Parler
jeune étudiant.

STAMP Monolingue
Évaluation des 4 compétences avec instructions dans la langue de test
Lecture Écriture Écoute Parler

Objectives of the STAMP Language Assessments

Avant STAMP language assessments are most commonly used for:

  • Qualifying students to receive State or Global Seals of Biliteracy and Avant Digital Badge to potentially receive credits or advanced placement at universities.
  • Credit-by-Exam testing to award high school language credit for a learner’s native language ability. Washington state and Texas are examples of states that offer credit-by-exam.
  • Showcasing the effects of language learning.
  • Informing language program curriculum.
  • Providing teachers with valuable insights on the level of learner’s knowledge of the language and progression of skills.
  • Aiding teachers’ ability to improve results throughout the language learning process for well-rounded proficiency.

Benchmark Levels

There are three major proficiency levels assessed: novice, intermediate and advanced. There are three sublevels within the first two levels: low, mid and high, and two (low and mid) for the highest level, corresponding to the one to eight rating. The Avant STAMP ratings are based on the US national proficiency standards.

Writing and Speaking Rating

Writing and speaking skills are assessed by Avant Certified Raters who use the generally accepted scoring rubric procedure, appropriate for individual levels of language competence.

Topics Guide

Novice topics

  • Presentations: name, address, family status, gender, age, date and place of birth, nationality, language, school, education, profession
  • Calendar/ Time
  • Colors/ Shapes
  • Wild animals/ Pets
  • School /Classroom
  • Weather / Seasons
  • Clothing / footwear
  • Food /Beverages /Restaurants / Bars / Dishes
  • Places / Geography, location, towns, public institutions, monuments, tourist attractions
  • Daily life / Everyday routine
  • Shopping / Stores
  • Leisure / Activities
  • Household / House

Intermediate topics

  • Health
  • Holidays / Celebrations
  • Occupations / Professions
  • Transportation / Travel / Vacations
  • Future plans
  • Culture
  • Contemporary Issues
  • Current events
  • Economics
  • Literature
  • Science
  • Social Science
  • History
  • Plus, more in-depth aspects of Novice topics

Advanced topics

  • Arts
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Math
  • Science / Technology
  • Plus, more in-depth aspects of Intermediate topics

Opportunities for Bilingual Credentials

Sceaux de bilinguisme des États, Global Seals of Biliteracy, and Avant badges numériques were created to honor students’ language proficiency skills and provide a reliable validation mechanism to higher education institutions and employers. 

All Seals of Biliteracy and digital badges are earned by a demonstration of language proficiency in two or more languages through an approved external assessment like the Avant STAMP 4S, WS and ASL. In most traditional schools and districts, students achieving the minimum score required to earn a seal have the results placed on their official transcript. 

Sceaux de bilinguisme des États

Sceaux de bilinguisme des États

Sceaux de bilinguisme des États are awards granted by a school, district, or state to high school seniors in public school environments. 

Avant badges numériques

Avant badges numériques

Avant badges numériques can be earned by any student and submitted to institutions of higher education for advanced placement into higher-level courses. 

Global Seals of Biliteracy

Global Seals of Biliteracy enable recipients to showcase their language skills to any school or employer across state lines and national borders, with a unique serial-numbered document. The Global Seal is awarded at three levels: Functional, Working, and Professional. Students, teachers, community members, and professionals are all eligible for the Global Seal.

Certificat

Credit-by-Exam

Credit-by-Exam is also offered in some states to award high school world language credit to learners with native ability. Washington state and Texas are such examples.

Helping Learners Prepare

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Avant STAMP is a real-world communication proficiency assessment. Meaning, it is about what the test taker can do at this point in time. “Cramming” will not help improve scores. Regular practice in writing and speaking the language will help the test taker improve their skills over time. 

Avant has several resources for test takers to help them prepare for the test included in the Test Taker Power-Up Guide. 

This guide and its related resources include:

  • Strategies for improving language skills.
  • Target “can-do” statements to help them understand what they need to be able to do to get to the next proficiency level.
  • Video tutorials on what to expect on the test.
  • Sample tests.

Resources for Community-Based Teachers

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Échelle de Référence

Our Benchmark and Rubric Guide is your key to understanding your students’ proficiency levels.

Knowing how to help your language learners improve and demonstrate proficiency is key to growing their skills. 

Avant has several resources to help teachers understand the levels of proficiency based on internationally recognized standards and use them to inform their curriculum for improved outcomes. 

Avant’s free resources include: 

Training on the Proficiency Standards

ADVANCE d'Avantboosts teacher confidence in accurately scoring student writing responses.  

  • Self-paced with immediate feedback
  • Practice rating student responses
  • Helps set goals and proficiency targets
  • Online and affordable
Learn more about Avant ADVANCE

Avant STAMP 4S

Avant STAMP 4S is the premier computer-adaptive language proficiency assessment typically administered to second-language learners.

STAMP 4S tests Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking and is our most comprehensive assessment. This test takes, on average, two (2) hours to complete and is offered in 17 different languages. 

Reading and Listening sections are multiple-choice and computer-scored with results available immediately. The Writing and Speaking sections are scored by our expert Avant Certified Raters.

The instructions and questions require an Intermediate-Mid understanding of English. For learners with limited English proficiency, a two-skill Writing and Speaking assessment may be used where the prompts may be heard in the testing language in addition to the English written instructions.

STAMP 4S Sample Tests

  1. arabe (standard moderne)
  2. français
  3. français
  4. allemand
  5. Hébreu
  6. Hindi
  7. Italien
  8. Japonais
  9. Coréen
  10. Mandarin (Simplifié)
  11. Mandarin (Traditionnel)
  12. Polonais
  13. Portugais (Brésilien)
  14. Russe
  15. Espagnol

Avant STAMPe

Avant STAMPe is the gold standard for linguistically and developmentally appropriate language assessment content for learners ages 12 and under.

STAMPe tests have been approved for use as early as K-1. 

STAMP 4Se assesses Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking and is our most comprehensive assessment. This test takes, on average, two (2) hours to complete and is offered in 14 different languages. 

STAMP WSe tests Writing and Speaking. On average, it takes one (1) hour to complete and is available in 2 languages.

Reading and Listening sections are multiple-choice and computer-scored with results available immediately. The Writing and Speaking sections are scored by our expert Avant Certified Raters.

Each section can be completed in any order and one at a time for more flexible testing times and durations.

STAMP 4Se Sample Tests

  1. arabe (standard moderne)
  2. Cantonais
  3. français
  4. français
  5. allemand
  6. Hawaïen (‘Ōlelo Hawai’i)
  7. Hébreu
  8. Japonais
  9. Coréen
  10. Mandarin (Simplifié)
  11. Mandarin (Traditionnel)
  12. Portugais (Brésilien)
  13. Russe
  14. Espagnol
  15. Yup’ik

STAMP WSe Sample Tests

  1. Arménien
  2. Ukrainien
  3. Vietnamien

Avant STAMP WS

Avant STAMP WS language proficiency assessment is a semi-adaptive Writing and Speaking test. Test takers will be asked to answer seven (7) self-evaluation questions that best represent their skill/ability level in both the Reading and Listening sections. 

The self-evaluated Reading score is used to determine the level of prompt delivered for the Writing section. The same applies for the Listening self-evaluation related to the Speaking prompts. This allows the language productive sections to be more appropriately leveled for the test taker. 
STAMP WS takes about one (1) hour to complete. The test is fully scored by our expert Avant Certified Raters. 

The instructions and prompts require an Intermediate-Mid understanding of English. For learners with limited English proficiency, the prompts may be heard in the testing language in addition to the English written instructions.

STAMP WS Sample Tests

  1. Amharique
  2. Arménien
  3. Bengali
  4. Cap-Verdien
  5. Chaldéen (uniquement à l'oral)
  6. Chin (Hakha)
  7. Chuukese
  8. Tchèque
  9. Filipino (Tagalog)
  10. Grec
  11. Créole haïtien
  12. Hawaïen (‘Ōlelo Hawai’i)
  13. Hmong
  14. Ilocano
  15. Kannada
  16. Khmer
  17. Marathi
  18. Marshallais
  19. Népalais
  20. Pachto
  21. Persan-Farsi
  22. Pendjabi
  23. Samoan
  24. Somali Maay Maay
  25. Somali Maxaa
  26. Swahili
  27. Tamil
  28. Télougou
  29. Thaï
  30. Tigrinya
  31. Turc
  32. Ukrainien
  33. Ourdou
  34. Vietnamien
  35. Yoruba
  36. Yup’ik
  37. Zomi

Avant SuperLanguage Test

  1. Abkhaze* 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  2. Afaan Oromo 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  3. Albanien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  4. Arabe - Algérien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  5. Arabe - Golfe Arabe 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  6. Arabe - Égyptien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  7. Arabe - Irakien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  8. Arabe - Jordanien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  9. Arabe - Libanais 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  10. Arabe - Libyen 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  11. Arabe - Marocain 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  12. Arabe - Palestinien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  13. Arabe - Soudanais 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  14. Arabe - Syrien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  15. Arabe - Tunisien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  16. Arabe - Yéménite 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  17. Bambara/Bamanakan 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  18. Bikol 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  19. Bosniaque 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  20. Birman* 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  21. Cantonais 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  22. Catalan 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  23. Cebuano 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  24. Chăm 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  25. CHamoru (Chamorro) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  26. Danois 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  27. Dari 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  28. Dinka 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  29. Néerlandais 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  30. Dyula 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  31. Estonien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  32. Mouton 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  33. Fiji Hindi 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  34. Fidjien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  35. Fulani 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  36. Géorgien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  37. Gujarati 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  38. Hausa 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  39. Hawaï Creole 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  40. Herero (Otjiherero) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  41. Hongrois 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  42. Islandais 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  43. Igbo 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  44. Ilonggo (Hiligaynon) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  45. Indonésien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  46. Jamaican Patwah 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  47. Jingpho (Kachin)* 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  48. K’iche’ 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  49. Kankanaey 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  50. Kapampangan (Pampango) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  51. Karen* 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  52. Kikuyu 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  53. Kinyarwanda (Kinyamulenge) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  54. Kirundi 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  55. Kosraean 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  56. Krio 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  57. Kunama 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  58. Lao 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  59. Latvian 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  60. Lingala 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  61. Lisan ud-Dawat 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  62. Lituanien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  63. Luganda (Ganda) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  64. Malais 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  65. Malayalam 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  66. Mandinka (Mandingo) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  67. Mixtèque 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  68. Mongolien 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  69. Mortlockese 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  70. Norvégien – Bokmal 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  71. Norvégien – Nynorsk 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  72. Nuer 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  73. Nyanja (Chichewa) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  74. Odia (Oriya) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  75. Palauan (Palall) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  76. Pangasinan 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  77. Pohnpeian 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  78. Q’anjob’al 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  79. Roumain 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  80. Saho 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  81. Sanskrit 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  82. Shona 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  83. Sinhala (Cinghalais) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  84. Soninké 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  85. Swazi (siSwati) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  86. Suédois 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  87. Sylheti 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  88. Tatar 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  89. Tibétain (Bod-skad) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  90. Tok Pisin 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  91. Tongan 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  92. Twi 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  93. Ouzbek 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  94. Visayan (Bisaya) 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  95. Waray-Waray 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  96. Wolof 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  97. Yapese 1 Test
    SuperLangue
  98. Zigula 1 Test
    SuperLangue

*Abkhazian, Burmese, Karen, and Jingpho (Kachin) are temporarily unavailable.

STAMP pour ASL (langue des signes américaine)

Avant STAMP for ASL is a first-of-its-kind American Sign Language test. It was developed for second-language learners of ASL and Children of Deaf Adults (CODA) in collaboration with Bridges Oregon. This assessment is designed for ages 13-18. 

Test takers may be evaluated on the Receptive skill (the ability to comprehend ASL) as well as the Expressive skill (the ability to create ASL) including the use of ASL grammar. This computer-adaptive Sign Language test is conducted entirely online.

The Receptive skill is computer-adaptive and results are available immediately upon completion of the section. The Expressive skill is scored by members of the ASL linguistics community who have undergone Avant Rater Certification training. Expressive results are available in 20-22 business days.

STAMP for ASL Sample Test

  1. Langue des Signes Américaine (ASL)

Spanish Heritage Language (SHL)

Avant’s Spanish Heritage Language assessment is a placement test for heritage language programs. It measures Vocabulary, Grammar, Verb use, Spelling, and Writing and Speaking proficiency in Spanish that is appropriate for the wide range of Spanish spoken in the US. 

The Avant SHL test identifies less proficient students quickly and allows them to exit the test early, while more proficient students take the entire test to gather the data necessary to accurately place them.

SHL Sample Test

  1. Espagnol

Avant STAMP Monolingual

Avant developed the STAMP Monolingue as a proficiency test that is designed to include instructions, questions, and prompts all in the target language. Educators may use STAMP Monolingual tests to accurately assess incoming heritage speakers, provide credit for a heritage language, or assess proficiency in a bilingual or multicultural environment.

STAMP Monolingual assesses Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking. This test takes, on average, two (2) hours to complete and is offered in 2 languages. 

Reading and Listening sections are multiple-choice and computer-scored with results available immediately. The Writing and Speaking sections are scored by our expert Avant Certified Raters.

STAMP Monolingual Sample Tests

  1. Espagnol
  2. arabe (standard moderne)

Contact our team to get a custom quote based on your heritage program’s needs. 

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Complete the contact us form for questions.
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Mise à jour :
Janvier