After 25 years ELT NEWS’s format has been changed. ELT NEWS, as a newspaper, had been published in a ‘compact’ format since 1989. The new format introduced as of January 2015, will feature, apart from the general material focusing on teaching issues and on innovation and creativity in ELT, a pullout section focusing on a topic.
The first topic is about two of the most popular English Language Tests: ECCE and ECPE. Hellenic American Union, the administrator of these tests, commissioned, for the writing up, a group of scholars who provide readers with a plethora of information regarding ECCE and ECPE tests. In addition a wide range of publications that support preparation for these two exams is brought to our readers’ attention.
ELT Testing has a very long history and is a familiar part of most teachers’ daily lives. The majority of language teachers and teaching institutions have taken the view that the only reliable way to determine the progress, attainment and proficiency of language learners is by using language tests.
In fact as language teachers we assess all the time. After a term or a year of teaching a class we have a pretty good idea of who the good ones and the not-so-good ones are. It has been a commonplace for teachers to think or say ‘s/he shouldn’t have failed the exam –s/he is much better than that’ or ‘the grades don’t reflect students’ ability’. Yet exam results are assumed to have greater validity and reliability as measures of language ability than assessment done by teachers.
A teacher’s assessment of a learner’s performance is held to be necessarily subjective whereas tests and exams are reliable because they are standardised and because all the testees are required to do the same tasks in the same amount of time and under the same conditions.
After spending years labouring through tutorials, the majority of students, eventually, get a certificate, but the million dollar question is: is it worth anything? Is a language certificate enough to get people a job or secure a place at a university? There is evidence to support that a certificate alone is not enough.
There are lots of good reasons people get a language certificate, both personal and professional. The fascinating language learning journey, however, is not just a project at the end of which we hand out a certificate; it’s above all a never-ending-process. Language instruction should not be limited to exam preparation sessions –teaching to the test. It should focus on teaching students the skills they need to be able to function in today’s ever-shrinking world.
Anastasia Spyropoulou
anastasia@eltnews.gr
