Teacher Discussion Forums

Dear Forum:

I have recently been hired to work with student speakers of other languages, who work as cafeteria employees of a major food preparing company. The company delivers foods to all the public schools in an urban city near me. I am not employed by the company, but by an educational institution as a ESOL teacher.

My question: Are there standard placement tests for these adult students? If so where do I get it? If not, can I make up my own? Please help, I need to start next week. I was just given the position yesterday. Thanks so much, inadvance.

Also, please tell me how long do you think it will take to test a student? 2 hours or more?

T

I use Oxford Placement Tests. The online version is here
http://www.lang.ox.ac.uk/tests/english_placement.html

I have the full version in .doc file. If you need them drop me a line at the address found here
http://www.ilearner.eu/mod/resource/view.php?id=36

You might be interested in trying out an oral placement test that we have developed. Of course, the degree of 'closeness' you want in a placement test will depend on how closely classes are streamed or courses are organised. Many tests just need to tell you if someone is 'elementary', 'pre-intermediate', 'intermediate' (the Ghobi desert of language courses) or 'advanced', so they don't need to be particularly revealing.
The kind of placement tests suggested in the other post are fine as far as they go - not too deep. They tend to favour a certain type of learner with a certain type of 'mental approach' - often they seem designed to test 'good studiers' rather than 'good language users'.
The test I'm suggesting is designed to match the teaching programme we use but is tied in to the Common European Framework, so you can place students at or between any of those levels.
Contact me directly if you'd like to know more.

I've had far too much experience with placement tests and the bottom line is that even commercial tests are not as reliable as tests conducted by a teacher of speaking and writing. They can normally give you a rough idea, but you have to be highly aware of the educational background of the students. IH has a pretty good system, they run a grammar test, then decide a writing topic and from there give a short interview... Of course good placement tests are what you pay Franchise fees for.

James
http://www.jamesabela.co.uk/

P.S. A cheap way to sort out students is to use the Cambridge series of practice papers. If you have a rough idea, just choose, KET, PET or FCE to give you a rough idea. Freebie tests are available at: http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/index.html

Excellent and very useful site. I've found there lots of materials. Thanks again, James!