Clicking through numerous online assignments in his seventh-hour French 5 class, then-junior Ishaan Home looked up from his computer when he heard his teacher mention the AAPPL test— a two-hour language proficiency test.
“I remember telling the students, ‘Hey, if you speak another language, let me know, you might want to do the Kansas Seal,’ and I remember his face lighting up and asking me right away, ‘Can they do it in Bengali?’” French teacher Gina Baker said.
Now a senior, Home took the AAPPL test on March 24 in Bengali, his first language.
The format of the AAPPL — Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages — test is similar to an AP or IB language test, but what’s different about the test is that it can be taken in over 165 languages, not just languages taught in school.
Home is one of the first students at SM East that’s taken the AAPPL test to earn the Seal in Bengali, according to Baker.
Initially, the AAPPL test was only available to students who were in an AP or IB language class at SM East, but it’s now available for anyone who speaks a second language, according to Baker. This is primarily due to taking the test being more normalized throughout the district.
The test consists of four parts: listening, reading, writing and speaking. This all comes naturally to Home since Bengali is his first language. The only slightly challenging task was writing prompts, where he had to write emails in Bengali, something he had never had to do prior.
“The writing part was a little more difficult because I've never written an email in Bengali, but I knew what to write still,” Home said.
It's a great opportunity for students to show their skills in a certain language that may not be taught at SM East, according to Home.
Baker also encourages anyone who has a different first language to take the test to see if they can pass.
“There's a lot of Hispanic people in our community that speak Spanish at home,” Baker said. “If they feel like they understand it well enough to read it, write it, all that stuff, then they would be doing themselves a service to take a test on it.”
For Home, his primary reason for wanting the seal is to use it as a resumé booster in the job market, since it would officially recognize that he’s biliterate. He’s confident that he passed the test and will receive the Seal, but either way, he’s glad that he had the opportunity to take it.
“I think it’s a no-harm, no-foul test,” Home said. “If I don't do well on it, then it doesn't matter. And if I do well on it, then I get a cool seal.”
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