Sign Language Proficiency Interview (SLPI)

Student Name, Submission Date 


Name of Measure, and Link

Sign Language Proficiency Interview (SLPI)
-assessment.info/index.php/sign-language-proficiency-interview.html

Summary of Measure

The Sign Language Proficiency Interview (SLPI) is a test that looks like a conversation between two people. The goal is to judge how the user uses ASL as a whole, both in terms of how it looks and how it works. The interview is on video, and three people rate it based on how well they understand a strong native ASL user. No Functioning Skills is at the bottom of the scale, and Superior Plus is at the top. The results of the ratings will be shared, and they will then be used to make a plan for improving sign language skills.

Was this measure translated or adapted from preexisting measures, or a novel test developed to meet a specific need?

This measure is based on the Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) and the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), which are used in other settings where a second or foreign language is spoken. The test was called the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI) from 1983 to 2006. Then it went back to being called the SLPI, which was its first name.

What evidence is provided about the quality of the instrument? Is reliability or validity information available?

The SCPI's validity and reliability haven't been reported. The National Technical Institute for the Deaf has only done one reliability study on the SLPI (NTID). This study proved that ratings were the same from one rater to the next, from three raters on the same team, and from one team to the next.

Were native signers and/or deaf individuals involved with the development of this measure?

The names of some of the people who did work on the ASL versions of the LPI/OPI were eventually discovered after some extra study. They might have been Deaf, HoH, or Hearing, but I was unable to tell. The SLPI's developers worked at NTID and partnered with personnel from Gallaudet University (GU), California State University-Northridge (CSUN), and other colleges with Deaf/ASL programs.

Has this measure been used in a research study? If not, describe how this measure could be used in a hypothetical research study.

This measure is often used to figure out how well ASL users, whether they are nat...