Job Discussion Forums

[cimarch]

Well I have finally managed to persuade my boss that allowing the parents to decide which class their little emperor will join is not the best way to go about things. So now I've got to design a placement test.

Can anybody who's done this before give me some advice/pointers? (I'm not quite cheeky enough to ask to copy someone else's )

We use the Cambridge Young Learner's series and the SBS series at present (although the new books I've also managed to persuade him to order have arrived, I just have to get them to agree to use one of them...).

My general plan is to give them some general questions chosen from chapters of the different books, some vocabulary and some grammar as well. I want to have two papers, one written and one oral, to try to get a rounded picture. I'll standardise them by getting some of the kids we already have to take them and average their scores (within reason).

Think it'll work?

[Roger]

Sorry to read you have to use this bollocks CAMBRIDGE YOUNG LEARNERS" series!

Now as for placement tests - you forgot to add the expected English level of your students and the concrete subject you are teaching.

The books I have had the misfortune of being made to at least take a look at don't prepare your learners for any practical English apart from the sentences they contain; there is no structure, no grammar focus, and a lot of the English is faulty. They are a hodge-podge of phrases and sentences in topical arrangements. I don't believe it is useful to memorise answers to preconceived questions - this leads to anticipating the same questions everywhere, under any circumstances.

You should probably test the students' ability to READ whole sentences as much as you should test their mastery of grammatically congruent structures. Why not improvise some clozes in which students have to write correct verb forms or the plural of nouns (and have to choose them by themselves)?


But all depends on whether they have had to learn writing as well; I had a job description that said my students must "learn this book" (read: "read"!) without them having learnt the ABC before (since they were between 5 and 8 years of age!). Parents single-mindedly wanted me to make them "practise spoken English" (by reading aloud) without anyone teaching them how to write and read in the first place...

[cimarch]

Yeah, CYL isn't great, mainly because of the complete lack of organisation.

The kids are from 5-15, with most in the 7-12 bracket and range from an almost fluent 9 year old to a 14 year old who has to think for a minute to come up with an answer to 'Hello'.

I teach all aspects of English, as do my TAs, but we concentrate more on our particular areas of expertise, they on grammar and I on speaking. We also tend to expand greatly on what is in the text. However, this test is for those who are new to the school.

I'll probably have some true/false, some multiple choice and some 'fill in the blank' questions, working from simplest to hardest.

I'm a bit hamstrung in that I will probably not be the one administering the tests. I will do my best to at least be able to review them, preferrably to correct them, by myself but they will probably be administered by the secretary, whose English is not great. I'm far more interested in the student's ability, rather than their amassed data, but I'm not sure how to assess this in a written test (apart from making them find their own answers as you say). I'vecome across many students who have relatively good English yet have never come across a some common words before, because they were not in their previous text. I could handle this easily in an oral test I was giving but I don't know how to do it by proxy. I guess I'll just have to insist I test them personally or spend sometime going over the oral test with my TAs.

[englishgibson]

Cimarch, it sounds like you have been having a hell of a time there. A written and an oral exam is a way to go before you place your students. Your written shall consist of that very simple and easy as well as that more difficult question that shall check the students� knowledge of grammar/structure and vocabulary (knowledge/comprehension). Your oral exam shall include the foreign teacher�s interview that lasts from 5-10 minutes, where the teacher checks the student�s listening and speaking abilities. It requires some training and prep work for both of those exams. You should have loads of pictures available in case the kids can�t reply to any of your questions during the interview.

With respect to your course books, I agree with Roger there. Now, since you�ve got to go with them make sure you break your levels down sensitively enough. Make sure that you know how many academic hours each course and each book shall take. The placement testing shall be really well organized with what the kids are going to learn from your course books.

Regarding your age groups, 7-10 is one unarguable choice in my opinion and the other one is 11-14 or 15. If you put an 8 years old kid with 13 years old kid together, it might be rather intimidating for the little one and then you have the content of the lesson that shall be different for both of those age groups. Of course there are exceptions, but you do not want to gamble, do you?

You also have to be highly professional and convincing selling this to your employer as well as to the parents. Further more your sales staff or receptionists shall be well trained for this gig.

Cheers and beers