Participant Qualifications
The EHLS program is designed for nonnative speakers of English
who want to develop their ability to use English in professional
situations. For 2012, the program recruited native speakers
of Arabic, Balochi, Dari, Hausa, Hindi, Igbo, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto, Persian
Farsi, Punjabi, Somali, Swahili, Turkish, or Urdu. The 2013 language list will be released by January 2012.
To be eligible for admission to the EHLS program, an applicant
must meet the following criteria:
- Be a native speaker of a language other than English. For 2012, speakers
of Arabic, Balochi, Dari, Hausa, Hindi, Igbo, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto, Persian
Farsi, Punjabi, Somali, Swahili, Turkish, or Urdu were
eligible for admission and scholarships. The 2013 language list will be released by January 2012.
- Have native language skills at level 3 or higher on the Interagency
Language Roundtable (ILR) scale (see www.govtilr.org).
- Have completed university-level or post-secondary professional
education in the native language.
- Have English language skills at level 2 or 2+ on the ILR scale.
- Be willing to commit to six months of full-time study.
To be eligible for an EHLS scholarship, an applicant must meet
the following criteria:
- Be a United States citizen.
- Be a native speaker of Arabic, Balochi, Dari, Hausa, Hindi, Igbo, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto, Persian
Farsi, Punjabi, Somali, Swahili, Turkish, or Urdu.
- Agree to fulfill a one-year service commitment with the United
States government. Note that all scholarship recipients
must agree to fulfill this commitment. NSEP will advise scholarship
recipients on job opportunities, but does not guarantee
employment. Read
more >
- Be completely separated from any position with the United
States government and any service in the United States military
as of the date instruction begins.
- Meet the eligibility criteria
for admission to the EHLS program listed above.
Assessment of Language Proficiency
The EHLS program assesses applicants' language proficiency in
three ways.
- Through applicant self-assessment as part of the initial
application. Applicants use self-assessment
grids to provide information
on their proficiency in English and the heritage language.
- Through a brief telephone interview conducted within
two weeks of the application deadline.
- Through formal proficiency testing conducted with applicants
who are selected to move into the second part of the application
process. Formal testing uses assessments developed by the U.S.
government.
The ILR Scale
The Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Scale is the rating
system used by many federal government agencies to assess proficiency
in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The ILR scale measures
an individual's ability to use a given language effectively in
various types of real-life situations. It assesses language proficiency
on a scale from 0 to 5.
A history of the scale's development and the full text of the
descriptors for each level are available on the Web site of the
Globe-Gate
Project.
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Qualifications and
Application 