Today the ACTFL Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) releases with refreshed content for the spoken AAPPL languages for administration during the 2026-27 academic year. The AAPPL is available to order through Language Testing International® (LTI), the exclusive licensee of ACTFL assessments beginning today. The AAPPL is the only test with content that addresses a variety of topics across all modes of communication: Interpersonal Listening and Speaking (ILS), Presentational Writing (PW), Interpretive Reading and Interpretive Listening (IR and IL), as well as Interpersonal Interaction (II) and Receptive Comprehension (RC) for ASL.
The AAPPL is available in the following languages: American Sign Languages (ASL), Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Unilingual Spanish. The AAPPL is third-party certified for compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), strengthening ACTFL’s and LTI’s commitment to safeguard learners’ personal identifiable information (PII).
Topics for the AAPPL tasks are provided on the general topics list, so that learners may have the opportunity to practice “tasks within familiar contexts” (ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners, 2012, p. 5). Teachers are encouraged to use these topics in lesson planning to facilitate learners’ practice across all modes of communication.
The AAPPL, developed by ACTFL and administered by LTI, is an assessment of performance toward proficiency that is designed to complement classroom-based language learning. As defined by the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, the AAPPL is a standards-based assessment of tasks across the three modes of communication. AAPPL tasks are informed by the functions described in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, and it is the only test with official ACTFL ratings assigned according to the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners and by ACTFL-certified raters. Detailed information about the AAPPL, including information on helpful tips and score reports, can be found on the ACTFL website.