The Italian Academy of Languages ("Accademia Italiana di Lingua") was founded in Florence in 1984 as a non-profit association between private and public schools that teach Italian as a second and a foreign language.
The need to create a certification association was principally due to a lack of this, for the Italian language. It was supported by the recommendations of the European Council, who advised the division of differing exam levels.
From the beginning, the association has used the services of experts in the field of certification, in particular the Head of 'Italian certification' in Pedagogy at VHS Germany, Dr Heinz Reiske of Frankfurt, and the Swiss UP delegate for the same certificate, Dr Rolf Mäder of Berna. The certificates of VHS are more well-known as the 'International Certificate Conference - ICC', renowned in WBR and later in TELC.
The first exam the Association created was the DALI, advanced level C1 (1984) followed by DILI, intermediate level B1 (1993) and by DELI, basic level A2 (1995).
The DILC intermediate commercial language's diploma B1 dates back to 2002.
Since 2005, the range that the AIL offers has expanded with the DILI B2, a "pre-advanced" level exam which, with a level between the DILI B1 and the DALI C1, tests the candidates' linguistic abilities on a B2 level.
Since 2007, the AIL DILC - B1 Examination has been recognized by the UFFT (Swiss Federal Office for professional education and technology) as the final Exam of Italian, it being second national language for all the professional, commercial schools of the Swiss Confederation.
Since 2009, the DALI, advanced level C2 exam has also been available.
