Development and validation of a Persian proficiency test

The recent increase in the number of publications devoted to teaching the Persian language to speakers of other languages and the development of such courses in Iran and elsewhere signify a cultural movement. However, one of the shortcomings of this movement pertains to its oblivious stance to Persian language proficiency. This paper aims at defining language proficiency bringing its importance to the development of a national proficiency test. Attempt is, therefore, made to develop and validate a Persian language proficiency test. Two validation procedures were used mainly, retrospective protocol analysis of three subject informants and a validation procedure based on the recent argument theory. The reliability of the test was measured using the Cronbach Alpha formula in the initial phase of the test measurement. Further, the importance of the test is discussed with reference to cultural and political identity of our country.