DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery)

DLAB is a US government owned standardized test which measures foreign language learning ability of armed members of the armed forces. All military personnel must take this test before their appointment to a specific language program. DLAB consists of a gibberish language and learners are expected to perform well in 126 multiple choice items related to the very same gibberish language. For example, if a learner scores high in the test, he or she will be placed in the Category 4 language learning program. US Department of Defense has classified foreign language based on the difficulty level. Category I languages are the easiest and Category IV languages are the difficult ones.

· 95 for a Category I language (Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish)

· 100 for a Category II language (German)

· 105 for a Category III language (Belorussian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Polish, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Slovak, Tagalog [Filipino], Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese)

· 110 for a Category IV language (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Pashto)

A significant limitation of DLAB is resiliency. It does not measure learners’ resiliency to sustain their performance in almost 18 months long language learning program. Also, there are several instances when adult learner scores high in the test but later struggle in learning a foreign language. For further information on such intelligence tests, please see the following links and videos.

Additional Sources:

http://https://www.cna.org/CNA_files/PDF/D0020788.A2.pdf

http://http://moodyfss.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DLAB-Information.pdf