In today¡¯s interconnected world, effective communication in English is more crucial than ever. As educators and language learners seek to measure and improve English proficiency, a resource like the Global Scale of English (GSE) offers a valuable framework for assessment. This blog post will explore how the GSE can be used to assess listening skills, providing insights into how it also helps tailor instruction and support language development.
For listening skills, the GSE focuses on how well learners can understand spoken English in different contexts. It assesses comprehension at varying levels of complexity:
Understanding simple information: At lower levels, learners are expected to understand basic information, such as simple instructions or everyday topics. The GSE provides learning objectives for how well learners can grasp essential details.
Understanding main ideas: As proficiency grows, learners should be able to identify main ideas and key points in more complex spoken texts, such as conversations and broadcasts. The GSE outlines how well learners can extract important information from various sources.
Understanding detailed information: At advanced levels, learners are expected to comprehend detailed and nuanced information, including implicit meaning and speaker intent. The GSE describes the level of detail and depth of understanding required at these stages.
The GSE also shows how students engage in different operations of listening, from global comprehension, recognizing information and identifying specific information to extracting information. By taking this into account, teachers can monitor students¡¯ progress and assess their listening skills. An example will show this in action.
Let¡¯s consider a level, say GSE 30-35 (equivalent to low A2 on the CEFR) and focus on how students process information. When checking a listening activity, rather than simply focusing on whether the answers are correct or incorrect, we can analyze our learners using the GSE and see what progress they are making and what we need to do as teachers to help them move on. Heres how:
Learning objectives |
GSE |
Date 1 |
Date 2 |
Date 3 |
Date 4 |
Can understand basic information about someone when introduced to them using simple language. |
28 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can recognize phrases and content words related to basic personal and family information. |
30 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can identify simple information in a short video, provided that the visual supports this information and the delivery is slow and clear. |
30 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can extract key factual information - prices, times and dates - from short clear, simple announcements. |
30 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can identify basic factual information in short, simple dialogues or narratives on familiar everyday topics, if spoken slowly and clearly. |
32 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can understand key information about arrangements in simple dialogues spoken slowly and clearly. |
32 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can understand information related to people's daily routines. |
32 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can understand the main information in short, simple dialogues about familiar activities, if spoken slowly and clearly. |
33 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can identify key information from short audio recordings, if spoken slowly and clearly. |
33 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can understand the main information in simple conversations about hobbies and interests. |
34 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can extract key factual information such as prices, times and dates from a recorded phone message. |
35 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can recognize some fixed expressions used to confirm information. |
35 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Can identify specific information in short, simple dialogues in which speakers make arrangements to do something, if spoken slowly and clearly. |
35 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
Every class will include a range of different abilities: some students get all of the questions right, whereas others may not. In this case, the GSE provides teachers with an extremely valuable tool to assess learners¡¯ performance.
We may see that students are performing well at the understanding and recognition level but still find it hard to identify and extract specific information. Will we solve this by simply giving them more listening activities? Well, no. To support them in identifying and extracting specific information, we need to help them understand and identify clues in a text. Analyzing the written audioscripts is the best way to help learners understand what they are listening to.
We can also use the same table, above, to record information each time we do a listening activity.
Students write the date and compare results to the ones they fill out in the future. This way, they can truly see progress and if they¡¯ve mastered a particular learning objective, something hard for them to see, even if we tell them so.
The Global Scale of English provides a structured and detailed approach to assessing speaking and listening skills. By using the?GSE framework, teachers can offer precise, level-appropriate feedback and tailor their instruction to meet learners' needs. This not only enhances the learning experience but also ensures that learners effectively develop their English communication skills. Whether you're a teacher or a learner, embracing the GSE can lead to more targeted, effective, and meaningful language assessment.
Explore the teaching resources available at GSE to support learning, including tools like our .?
Read our other posts 'How the GSE can help teachers personalize activities' and 'The Global Scale of English and planning'.
In the era of the Great Resignation, there are lots of factors that influence whether or not someone chooses to stay with their company or decides to accept a job offer from a new employer.
Whilst fair pay remains a constant in this, feeling included, valued, and cared about by colleagues plays a significant role in the decision on whether to stay or go.
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You are nervous, yet excited. You want to appear relaxed and fun, but still be taken seriously. Most of all, you are keen to make an excellent first impression.
With all that in mind - planning your first English classes of the year can be a daunting experience.
Here are six things to consider when planning your first classes:
Whether you are teaching young learners, teenagers or adults, it¡¯s important you discuss the aims and objectives of the course from day one. You¡¯ll need to learn more about your students' needs to do this. Why are they learning English? Do they want to prepare for an official exam? What activities do they enjoy? What things do they need to improve the most?
The way you do this will depend on the age of your learners. For example, with adults and teens, you could get them to interview each other and write a report about what they found out. With younger children, do a survey they can complete using smiley faces.
Although you should understand your students' needs and why they want to learn English - to help make your classes relevant and engaging - you should also discover what they enjoy doing outside of class.
To do this, get students to write mini bios you can stick around the classroom. Or have them prepare presentations where they share something they are passionate about with the rest of the class - using coursebooks. As a class, go through the contents page, vote on which topics students find most interesting, and start with those.
You want your first class to be fun so that students are motivated, and associate English language learning with something they can enjoy. Ice-breakers can also be an excellent way to get to know each other and learn about your students' current level of English.
Activities where students have to ask each other questions work well.
Young learners and teenagers tend to be shy at the start of a course - especially if they don¡¯t know each other. Develop a rapport and break down boundaries by including team-building activities in your first class.?Your aim is to have all the students feeling more comfortable with each other before the end of the lesson so that there are no awkward silences in future lessons.
Managing expectations is an essential part of a teacher's job. Make sure in the first class you are clear about what you expect from your students and what they can expect from you.
Have students brainstorm the rules for the class and then make a big poster or ¡®class contract¡¯ which all students have to sign. Display the poster on the wall so you can always refer to it if someone misbehaves.
Try to keep the rules as positive as possible. Instead of writing: 'Don¡¯t speak your first language', write: 'Try to always speak English and ask if you don¡¯t know a word'. If you are feeling really brave, you can even get your students to devise a list of rules for you which you can display on the wall next to theirs.
It¡¯s great making your first lesson fun - but there¡¯s nothing more motivating than leaving a new class and feeling like you¡¯ve made a good decision and you are going to learn lots (and you aren¡¯t wasting your time or money). This is especially important for adult learners.
So, as well as getting to know each other and finding out their needs, teach them something new. This could be 10 new pieces of vocabulary, how to structure a letter or report, or a list of resources they can use at home to practice their English.
Food is not just a means of nutrition; it can be a vibrant part of a culture's identity. English cuisine, influenced by its history, boasts a range of interesting and sometimes puzzling food names (some even puzzling fluent English speakers).?Let's explore the stories behind some of the most well-known English food names.
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