| Summary: | This paper explores the potential application of proficiency testing in U.S. colleges and universities. Specific consideration is giv-en to: the Oral Proficiency Interview, based on ILR or ACTFL guidelines, administered on a large scale at the Defense Language In-stitute and occasionally employed in American academia; the Diag-nostic Assessment Interview, the assessment tool of choice at DLI, basically unheard of in academia; and the new Polish proficiency test, which is part and parcel of the standardized series of language tests administered throughout Europe, based on Language Testers of Eu-rope guidelines. The author proposes that introducing the underlying principles of proficiency testing into American academia and promot-ing a better awareness of level tasks and expectations on the part of language teachers could help to eliminate the disconnect between testing and teaching. It could benefit instruction from early to ad-vanced stages.
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