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pupils more than two years of language support • Preparation for work (Level 3)
How are we proceeding? • Computer literacy (Level 3)
• Test tasks and themes based on the benchmarks: • Living in a diverse society (Level 3)
closely integrated with the ELP and with day-to- • Communications (Level 3)
day classroom activities • Career information (Level 3)
• Productive skills tested directly (teachers rate • English as a second language (Levels 3 and 4)
pupil performance using rating scales based on Features of ELP-based learning
the Global scales of underlying linguistic competence) • Target setting is a regular procedure
• Receptive skills tested indirectly (scoring is an • Self-assessment drives learning
integral part of test design) • Checklists are used to plan and monitor learning
• The judgements made via the tests are closely • A personal learning plan develops
related to the judgements made by learners and • Regular reflection is central to ELP use
their teachers on the basis of the self-assessment • The learner is responsible for building a personal
function of the ELP dossier
• Testing supports self-assessment and pedagogy FETAC requirements
(for further details see Little 2005) • Targets must be recorded
• Self-assessment is part of the assessment process
Example 2: Adult immigrants learning English • Checklists are kept with proofs for each module
as a second language in Ireland • A personal learning plan is required
Integrate Ireland Language and Training • Reflections, plans and decisions must be recorded
• ESL courses for adult immigrants with refugee in a diary
status • The learner is responsible for ensuring that all
– All levels from beginner to advanced proofs are kept for assessment – in ELP dossier
– Delivered entirely in the target language The role of the target language
– Multilingual/multi-ethnic classes of 15 • The medium through which learners engage with
learners different learning and assessment tasks
– 20 contact hours per week, 3 terms per year, • It allows for the expression of ‘life skills’ and
17 weeks per term previous knowledge
– 4-week cycles of learning • It is essential for the presentation of ‘evidence’
– 5th week used for reflection, self-assessment, • Its demands are limited to the particular
teacher assessment, target setting, appraisal requirements of a specific learning outcome
interviews etc.
• Principal goal: to enable learners to operate as Features of the assessment process
autonomous agents in an English-speaking • The stakes are high but the question of cutting
society scores does not apply
• Pedagogical approach: emphasis on collaborative • The test takers have a high level of control
planning, monitoring and evaluation • Self-assessment is key to the test taker’s ultimate
• Principal tool: the Milestone ELP success
• There is an obvious connection to learners’ daily
IILT’s pedagogical approach is designed to support concerns
learners in • Assessment demands (SLOs) are consistent due to
• developing awareness of themselves in relation to their specificity
the challenges posed by a new life • Language knowledge is not a discriminatory
• gaining control over the range of skills that they factor
need but do not yet possess • Providing proofs is a positive activity
• identifying and articulating personal (short-term)
targets and (long-term) objectives Conclusion
• using these targets and objectives to plot (and
adjust as necessary) a personal ‘pathway’ that Working with the ELP …
leads to ‘the future’ Primary learners of English as a second language
• learn to assess themselves in behavioural terms:
What about external assessment? what they can do in their target language
• FETAC (Further Education and Training Awards • develop essential metacognitive/metalinguistic
Council) offers an alternative route through skills
education • come to understand their curriculum in terms of
• Credits may be gained over shorter or longer goals, processes and outcomes
periods • are learning close to the task-based tests that are
• Candidates must have the necessary proficiency used as an external measure of their language
in language (including specialized vocabulary) in development
order to carry out any ‘specific learning outcome’ Adult migrant learners of ESL
(SLO) • set their own (short-term) learning targets, which
• Inherent in many modules is the identification reflect their (long-term) learning objectives, which
and use of transferable ‘life skills’ in turn reflect their life goals
FETAC modules offered by IILT in 2005-6 • through goal setting and self-assessment, develop
• Personal effectiveness (Level 3) essential metacognitive/metalinguistic skills