evaluation in companies
Evaluation in companies | Francesca Michalski | March 25th, 2003
This is a personal request rather than something related directly to the course, but I am hoping that within the wide experience of the participants, someone might be able to help me. I have been asked to act as an external assessor for Dell computers in the city I live in Brazil. They pay for 120 staff to have English classes with private teachers and would like me to assess the progress of these students on a three-monthly basis.
Personally, I think it's extremely difficult to see progress, especially in higher levels, during such a short period of time, however, I have heard of computer programmes which are designed to assess students' levels and might be comprehensive enough to note even minor changes. Does anyone have any experience with such programmes as a testing device or have experience of working with a company evaluation system?
Any suggestions would be most welcome,
Francesca
Re: Evaluation in companies | Raymond Sheehan | April 2nd, 2003
Hi, Francesca:
I think this is an interesting situation to be in. Given that the stakeholders here are teachers, learners and corporate paymasters (and now you too!), you might have to decide which group takes priority. Presumably, the company wants to check the efficacy of a course it's paying for, and this in turn is not just a case of how well learners are learning but how well teachers are doing their job.
An objective outside test may not be the fairest one to consider in this situation: would it measure lexical progress, recognition/production of grammatical structures? And if the word gets around that you're using an external benchmark, is there any risk that teachers will start teaching to the test?
Perhaps a reasonable starting point would be to sit down with teachers and go over their materials, their goals, their specified objectives and then devise fair tests based exclusively on what you found out, measuring how well the specific objectives are being reached. And do you want to test all four skills? Or would you focus on certain skills for certain types of employees (telephoning, sending emails?).
Raymond
UAE
Response to those who wrote | Francesca Michalski | April 5th, 2003
My thanks to those of you who took the trouble to reply to my request about how I might go about regularly evaluating the English of employees at Dell computers in South Brazil.
Several participants suggested that UCLES BULATS test might be an effective solution. However, the pound is strong at the moment and the 'real' (Brazilian currency) weak: one pound = five reals, and Dell aren't willing to invest in foreign testing mechanisms for this reason.
OUP's quick placement test was also mentioned and might be a partial solution combined with an oral and written evaluation. Finally, Raymond thought I might design tests based on what the teachers are actually teaching. However, as several private teachers have been employed rather than a language school, the material and syllabus (if they follow one) they are using are all different. Nevertheless, I think it's a great idea to get together with the teachers and even the students to discuss the evaluation system with them before deciding on the final version.
If Dell do take me on (as Raymond mentioned, I'm a stakeholder and we're negotiating), I'll tell you what the final outcome is.
Francesca
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