Creating Listening and Speaking Assessments for Adult English Language Learners
Listening and speaking assessments by Jeff Shibasaki
Summary
While working in Japan as the head English language instructor for EP Academy’s Training Center, I created two listening assessments and one speaking assessment to evaluate general English and business English levels for adult students (2015). I also wrote the instruction guide to ensure teachers conducted the assessments correctly.
Roles
Wrote instructions for conducting assessments
Wrote dialogs to be recorded by voice actors
Wrote worksheets and answer keys
Co-wrote speaking assessment questions and descriptors
Conducted assessments with general and business English language learners
Tools
Pages
Final Thoughts
Evaluating adult English language levels is important for students to be placed in the right class and teachers to have an effective, standardized procedure. The challenge in writing a language assessment is that you need to include the right language for each class level and it needs to be easy for teachers to score. Finding that balance is central to creating a useful assessment.
