4th of September 2015 - Young Learners Placement Test

So on Friday my class took the Oxford Young Learners Placement Test. This placement test tests the student's abilities in "language use" and "listening" and marks it with a A0 to B1 CEFR (Common European Framework Reference). Oxford emphasises that the test results are NOT official Oxford certificates and that it's only an indication. And if you take the test yourself, you'll know why. It's really short and it's rather meant to be child-friendly and motivating than demanding and difficult. But that was just perfect for my class!

Since I wanted to know, what this test was about, I added Nick (my stepson) to the class list and had him take the test at home. I wasn't surprised that he got a B1 in both "language use" and "listening" because his English is really good. While we were in Australia he really could communicate independently to natives or other English speaking tourists. According to the curriculum of most German speaking cantons in Switzerland, the aim in receptive skills such as listening and reading by the end of primary school is A2.1 (basic) to A2.2. (advanced). The same for oral production skills such as speaking and communicating. The expected written productive skills are A1.2 (basic) to A2.1 (advanced).

So on Friday I told the class that they will be doing an exercise on the computer and that they should try their best but not worry, if they didn't understand it all. I prepared all the computers in the media room for them so they could just come in, log in and start with the test. Well they have had another test that morning and you could tell that it was tiring for them. Especially the listening part, because they had to listen to the voice twice before the "next" button appeared.

So there's not to much else to say about the lesson itself but I have to admit that the results really surprised me. To keep this anonymous, I cut off the names...

Well first I just saw, that 10 out of 17 had a B1 level and almost all of the others a A2 which meant that they have already reached the level they should have after sixth grade. But how could this be, if they cannot speak at all? I don't mean to be rude but so far I have not heard one correct sentence from them. Then I saw that I could split the results and see how they did in "language use" and "listening" and now it started to make a little more sense. So really all except for two reached a B1 there. So this is good to know: They can understand spoken English!!! And in "language use" they are between B1 and A1. It's amazing to see that one child is so much better in this category than he is in listening. So there is so much potential in this class and my focus will definitely be on speaking and producing English because that's what they struggle with the most.

These placement tests are not meant to be taken again at the end of a term, but I think I still want to know where they stand after this year with the new method. It's a pity though that I don't have any tests on their speaking ability to see how they will improve there.