Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / December 2005

Not quite what you're looking for, but Cambridge do have the Young
Learners English programmes aimed at 7 - 12s -
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/yle.htm

DC

There is the TOEFL ITP (Instititutional Testing Program). It was set up
to deal with the precise situation you've described, but I've always
felt that TOEFL stuff is too age-biased.

A while ago, UCLES EFL worked with OUP to product the QPT system (Quick
Placement Tests). There are pen/paper and also CD-ROM versions. This
test has not been widely adopted in Greece. Oxford EFL had an older pen
and paper system that has been completely discontinued, unless I've
been misinformed.

Other than that, I know of nothing.

Placement tests, historically, have been a thorny issue in this
business. In my position as a private tutor, I have the luxury of doing
a full-on grammar analysis (Study Guide in English Grammar in Use +
personal interview/interrogation). I also run a full FCE or TOEIC or
whatever the student is aiming for before I take anyone on. It takes
time and costs money to run something like this for free, but
generally, it's the only real way to guarantee a clear understanding of
the student's general level of language ability, their learning style,
and a no-bullshit indication of their level of motivation sans their
parents' protestations, obfuscations -- and standard Eurotrash
mendacity.

The issue of streaming students by means of placement tests is further
complicated by the facts that student motivation plays a significant
role in how fast students pick the language up, and that schools, for
various reasons, do not particularly WANT their students to be rigidly
streamed. While "for various reasons" usually means that grouping
student according to ability means smaller class sizes and less money
raked in per class, there are other factors at play that must be
acknowledged, i.e., learning styles, peer groups, false beginner
issues, etc.

I maintain, however, that placement testing as it exists today is a
sham pretty much only designed to guarantee a school gets enough bodies
in each classroom to maintain a healthy profit margin. Even in my
grueling diagnostic testing, there's also an element of showmanship:
I'm introducing the kind of teacher I am and basically giving them a
taste of what spending a significant chunk of their time working with
me will be like. It's not exactly like selling myself as a teacher...

Hey, there are no salacious neon signs outside my office!

(Yet.)