2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

All potential military recruits must take the multi-aptitude test battery known as the Armed
Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), either in a high school setting, at a Military
Entrance Processing Station (MEPS), or at a Military Entrance Testing Site (METS). The
ASVAB contains eight individual tests: General Science, Arithmetic Reasoning, Word
Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Mathematics Knowledge, Electronics Information,
Auto and Shop Information, and Mechanical Comprehension. Each ASVAB subtest is
timed, and the entire battery takes about three hours. Scores are reported for individual
subtests and for various combinations of subtests, known as composites.
ASVAB data are used for both accession and classification purposes, and each service has its
own preferred composite of ASVAB subtests that qualify recruits for further testing to
determine whether they can become military linguists. Recruits who qualify on their
service’s ASVAB composite may then take the DLAB, which is one of several special tests
administered in the MEPS. Whether the DLAB is actually administered to any particular
recruit who has the appropriate ASVAB composite score depends on several factors. First,
the potential recruit must be willing to take the DLAB. Second, classifiers in the MEPS may
offer the recruit a different post-ASVAB instrument if other jobs are more pressing at the
time. Third, time or other circumstances may prevent the DLAB from being administered to
the potential recruit.
When the DLAB is administered to a recruit, it, too, serves both selection and assignment
purposes. A recruit becomes eligible for assignment to language training at DLIFLC in
preparation for a career as a military linguist by scoring at or above his/her service’s DLAB
cut score. Eligibility to study a given language is determined by comparing the recruit’s
DLAB score to cut scores for the various language difficulty categories. Within those
constraints, the actual language assigned depends upon the needs of the service, and
sometimes upon the desires of the recruit. Regardless of the language studied, DLIFLC
students are expected to attain the Institute’s stated level of proficiency at the end of the basic
program.
The nature of the DLAB and the context in which it is used
The DLAB is a multiple-choice test that takes about two hours to administer. It consists of
four parts: a brief biographical inventory, a test of the ability to perceive and discriminate
among spoken stress patterns, a multi-part section which tests the ability to apply the
explicitly stated rules of an artificial language, and a final section which tests the ability to
infer linguistic patterns as illustrated by examples in an artificial language and to apply the
induced patterns to new artificial language samples.
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45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003