FLATS—a nationwide testing system created by BYU—is changing the game for language learning by offering affordable assessments for hundreds of institutions.
On the first floor of the Joseph F. Smith Building (JFSB), sandwiched between the Humanities Learning Commons and the Writing Lab, you can find the Office of Digital Humanities (ODH)—which serves as the headquarters for the Foreign Language Achievement Testing Services (FLATS) program. This testing program was initially created so returned missionaries could receive class credit for learning a mission language; however, it has since expanded into a program that can give students and professionals across the country—not just those at BYU—an accurate evaluation of their language skills. Over the past couple of years, FLATS has evolved even more, and scores from the test are accepted by numerous institutions across the country, including the Provo Police Department.
Introducing FLATS
Hundreds of universities across the US use FLATS as their go-to language evaluation program for a myriad of reasons, the most prominent being its affordability and the efficient and readily available proctors. In fact, the program has become so widely used that Maren Selle (Pre-Illustration ’29), a member of the FLATS customer support team, says, “When people call and ask who will accept the test, I instead tell them who doesn’t accept the test, because that list is a whole lot shorter.”
The test-takers Selle interacts with come from a variety of backgrounds; some are current college students hoping to graduate early while others may be parents coming back to school. More recently, however, the list of FLATS users has included another, more local institution that caters to officers instead of students: The Provo Police Department.
Officers and Language Afficionados
The Police Department currently uses FLATS to evaluate officers’ Spanish language skills with the hopes of better helping the Spanish speaking community. “Provo is home to a significant number of people who primarily speak Spanish,” Lieutenant Jon Orgill (Exercise Science ’06) explains. “Being able to communicate with those members of the community is an important part of providing the type of service we want to give.”
FLATS is just another way BYU contributes to the world of foreign language education.
Orgill worked alongside Professor Jeremy Browne (Digital Humanities) to provide the department with more personalized test results; instead of the officers receiving pass or fail results like most FLATS users, they receive point and percentage scores based on the department’s language criteria. This allows Orgill to rank officers based on their language knowledge while giving them feedback on how they can improve. So far, this program has helped dozens of officers receive increased compensation according to their language skills and has provided points of improvement for communicating with those in the Spanish-speaking community.
FLATS has become an important tool for serving and connecting with the community—both right here in Provo and all across the country. Browne explains that “FLATS is just another way BYU contributes to the world of foreign language education.”
See what tests FLATS offers at their website.