Dual Language Proficiency

The requirements related to language proficiency in English have not changed since 2010. Evidence of at least one of the following will meet the proficiency requirements:

• A high school diploma, or its equivalent, from an English-speaking country (diploma or transcript as long as the country of origin can be established).
• Successful completion of extensive coursework at the post-secondary level, resulting in a degree, with the majority of classes conducted in English.
• Time spent studying and/or working in an English-speaking country, where you were required on a daily basis to perform tasks at a professional level in English.
• Successfully passing any English language proficiency test from a reputable testing organization (See the Note below).
• Successful passage of an established interpreter/translator certification exam (that includes a language-specific performance test), such as:
  • The Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam (FCICE);
  • Any National Center for State Court (NCSC) exam;
  • Other national or state certification exams, e.g., ATA, BEI, NAJIT, NBCMI, RID, State of Washington Medical Interpreter Certification.

 

Evidence of at least one of the following will meet the proficiency requirements:

• A high school diploma, or its equivalent, with classes taught in Arabic, Mandarin, or Spanish (diploma or transcript as long as the country of origin can be established and high-school-level instruction in that country is conducted in the corresponding LOTE).
• A U.S. high school diploma from a school with the Seal of Biliteracy, with the instruction in the corresponding LOTE.
• A diploma in any major and at any level from a college where the instruction is conducted in the corresponding LOTE.
• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in the corresponding LOTE (e.g., the major is Spanish) from any country.
• A master’s degree in Interpreting/ Translation in the corresponding LOTE from any country.
• Successfully passing a language proficiency or interpreting skills test in the corresponding LOTE from a testing organization approved by CCHI (see Testing Vendors of the Language Proficiency (LP) Tests). The minimum accepted levels are Advanced-Mid on the ACTFL scale and 2+ on the ILR scale (or an equivalent to these levels established for other tests).
• Successful passage of an established interpreter/translator certification exam (that includes a language-specific performance test), such as:
  • The Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam (FCICE);
  • Any National Center for State Court (NCSC) language-specific exam;
  • Other national or state certification exams, e.g., ATA, NBCMI.
  • Language-specific performance-test certifications from other countries, e.g., NAATI

CCHI recognizes a diversity of languages and the corresponding educational and professional experiences represented by our applicants. Therefore, CCHI divides all languages into three (3) Tiers (for more information about the tiers, see Language Tiers for Establishing Language Proficiency).

If your LOTE is a language from Tier 1

Evidence of at least one of the following will meet the proficiency requirements:

• A diploma in any major and at any level from a college where the instruction is conducted in your LOTE. (High School diplomas are NOT accepted.)
• A master’s degree in LOTE (i.e., the major is LOTE) from a country where this LOTE is one of the primary languages spoken in that country (e.g., the major is Portuguese from Brazil or Swahili from Kenya). E.g., a MA in Korean from the US is NOT accepted.
• A master’s degree in LOTE Interpreting/ Translation with English as a second language from any country. E.g., MA in Korean/English Translation from US (or France or Korea) is accepted.
• Successfully passing a language proficiency or interpreting skills test in LOTE from a testing organization approved by CCHI (see Testing Vendors of the Language Proficiency (LP) Tests). The minimum accepted levels are Advanced-Mid on the ACTFL scale and 2+ on the ILR scale (or an equivalent to these levels established for other tests).
• Successful passage of an established interpreter/translator certification exam (that includes a language-specific performance test), such as:
  • Any National Center for State Court (NCSC) language-specific exam;
  • Other national or state certification exams, e.g., BEI, RID, NBCMI (CMI only, not Hub-CMI).

If your LOTE is a language from Tier 2 or 3

Evidence of at least two (2) of the following will meet the proficiency requirements:

• An attestation from an employer that meets CCHI’s parameters (for more information, see Employer Categories from Which CCHI Accepts Attestations about Language Proficiency in a LOTE).
• An attestation from a community organization that meets CCHI’s parameters (for more information, see Community Organization Categories from Which CCHI Accepts Attestations about Language Proficiency in a LOTE).
• A passing score on the Stamp WS test (only for Tier 2-3 languages; this test is NOT accepted for Tier 1 languages).
• A college transcript confirming passing a course of Interpreting/Translation in your LOTE.
• Documentation confirming passing a language course in your LOTE where components of the course included a LOTE language immersion or living abroad in the country where the LOTE is spoken (e.g., language courses by Peace Corps, Foreign Service).
• Documentation confirming passing a non-concordant evaluation interview conducted by a trained evaluator.
• Refugee status documentation.

OR evidence of successfully passing a language proficiency or interpreting skills test in your LOTE from testing organization approved by CCHI (see Testing Vendors of the Language Proficiency (LP) Tests). In this instance, only one document is needed to meet the requirement. The minimum accepted levels are Advanced-Mid on the ACTFL scale and 2+ on the ILR scale (or an equivalent to these levels established for other tests).

CoreCHI™ Certification – same as for spoken languages of Tier 1 and from Gallaudet University (American Sign Language Proficiency Interview (ASLPI), https://www.gallaudet.edu/the-american-sign-language-proficiency-interview).

 

CoreCHI-Performance™ Certification – successful passing of an interpreting certification exam that includes a performance test in ASL, e.g., by BEI or RID.

CCHI recognized classifies Languages Other Than English (LOTE) into three (3) tiers based on the following availability criteria:

1. A Language Proficiency (LP) test that is reasonably accessible in the U.S.
2. Education at the high school level or above with instruction in that language (these are usually official/national languages).
3. Medical or healthcare information available in that language (authentic, created in that language, not a translation from another language, and considering that in some countries the language of teaching medicine is English).

The attribution of languages to a specific tier is subject to change based on the following factors:

• A language may gain the status of an official language due to political changes in a country.
• A language may gain the status of the language of instruction in education due to political changes in a country.
• A valid LP test may be developed for an official language that currently does not have an LP test.
• A valid LP test may be removed from public use by a testing vendor for a language that currently has such an LP test.

Click here to see the three Language Tiers.

CCHI accepts language proficiency tests for Languages Other Than English (LOTEs) from CCHI-approved testing vendors only.

Click here to access the list of approved vendors.

If you are a testing vendor and wish CCHI evaluate your LP tests for inclusion on this list, please contact us at solutions@cchicertification.org and include “language proficiency testing” as part of your subject.