What to look for in an English placement test

There's no denying that tailoring your teaching to individual students is an effective strategy. However, many teachers struggle with finding the time to include teaching moments which address an individual learner's specific needs. So, what's the best way to create an individualized classroom? Andrew Walkley, co-author of Roadmap, explains the benefits of this approach and shares some techniques to ensure that every student gets the most out of your lessons. 

The best of both worlds?

First of all, what does individualized teaching mean? It's the concept that students will learn most effectively when the activity is specific to their needs and the language they are using is appropriate for their level. This concept is sometimes seen in opposition to coursebooks and class-based learning, where students are all expected to follow the same syllabus. However, class syllabuses and coursebooks have the following benefits:

• Providing students with common goals 
• Encouraging learners to follow an unfamiliar topic that then opens new doors of learning
• The learning opportunities in peer-to-peer explanation 

When we talk about individualized teaching in the classroom, we want to exploit the benefits of learning together while also providing opportunities for more individualized development. So, how can you, as a teacher, combine the two approaches?

1. Involve students in choosing your route

All classroom groups are different and made up of people from different age groups with distinct needs and interests. Roadmap can help in two ways:

1. There is a fast and slow track. The fast track focuses on language input and speaking. The slow track has additional skills lessons at the back of the book that are thematically linked to the corresponding fast track lesson. 
2. Each lesson has a clear goal and final task. For shorter courses, get each student to choose three tasks they would definitely like to do. Based on the results, you can prioritize those lessons.

At the start of the course, make a point of asking about students' learning priorities and then plan accordingly. Once you've completed an input and speaking lesson, you can ask the students if they want to further explore the topic through the skills lesson.

2. Make use of tasks

Open tasks, where students exchange their own ideas in a meaningful way, are a key part of individualized lessons. In essence, they are self-differentiating because each student will attempt to complete the task using whatever language they are able to use. In Roadmap, each of the main lessons ends with a clear task connected to a Global Scale of English (GSE) can-do statement. However, there are also lots of other speaking opportunities without a 'speaking' label (under vocabulary or reading, etc.), as well as the conversation that typically occurs in any lesson, all of which can be treated as open tasks.

3. Give individualized feedback and then share it

In a group setting, it's impossible to give individual feedback on every single task. However, you can give individual attention to different people throughout the lesson. Make yourself available to give students the language they need as it arises during an activity. Then, when they've completed the task, write some of these examples on the board, but leave a gap for the keywords. Elicit these keywords from other members of the class. If they can't get it, ask the student(s) you helped to explain the missing language. You might then repeat the task, but this time, pay attention to a new group. 

4. Check what vocabulary students know

All coursebook writers and teachers make choices about what vocabulary to introduce to students. In the case of Roadmap we are guided by the GSE and teachers might like to experiment themselves using the GSE Teacher Toolkit. However, all students will have their own lexicons. You can individualize learning better by asking students to rate the words you aim to cover in a unit according to whether they know them or not. For example, 1 = it's completely new, 2 = the meaning is familiar but I don't use it, 3 = this is part of my productive vocabulary. 

5. Get students to create their own word lists and cards

This knowledge will enable you to encourage students to focus on their individual vocabulary needs. They can reinforce learning by developing a word list or making flashcards using a web tool such as Quizlet. For new words they may have a word/collocation with an L1 translation.

With familiar vocabulary, they could have cards with a keyword on one side and varied collocations or common examples on the other (also in English). It's worth setting aside some time in class to do this at the start of a course. If your students are engaged and motivated, it can become a regular discipline for learning new vocabulary. 

6. Ask more open questions about usage, not just meaning

When we do vocabulary tasks from the course material in class, we can use open questions to individualize learning with the following two techniques. Firstly, as you go through the answers, rather than going in order 1 to 8, you can nominate people to give the answer that they're most unsure of and want to check. Secondly, we can ask the rest of the class open questions which focus on how words are used. For example, take these questions from different vocabulary exercises in Roadmap B1+:

• What (other) things might you spill?
• Why might a character in a series be killed off?
• What (else) can you describe as reliable?
• What can someone do to stay calm? 

You could also ask questions such as, "What's the opposite of staying calm?" or "What might you say if you spilled something?"

When you ask these questions, you are checking meaning, but more importantly, you are also pushing students to reveal how well they know a word. Do they know the collocations of spill and reliable? Do they have the other language they might need to talk about the aspects of a TV series or help someone who is in a panic? You can then encourage students to choose how much of this potentially new language they want to add to their word lists.

7. Provide open homework tasks and make time to share the results

Homework is another opportunity to individualize learning. Give students a wide choice of tasks based on the material of the course or beyond, for example:

• Choose any number of exercises they want to do from workbook material 
• Find and read one article they are interested in (in L1 or L2)
• Write five things they want to learn how to say in English (perhaps using Google Translate)
• Write up an interesting conversation they had in English (the conversation could be originally in L1 or L2)

Whatever task they choose, the key is to dedicate some classroom time to discussing which homework task they did and why. Encourage them to explain their answers and what they learned through the task, and whether or not they would choose to do a similar task again.  

For a more detailed introduction on how you can individualize your teaching, check out Andrew's webinar: 

Learning English as a second language is a journey that can be fun and tough. A key part of this journey is knowing your current skill level. The Global Scale of English (GSE) helps learners check their skills. The GSE is a scale from 10 to 90 that measures English ability. It gives clear information about what learners can do at each level. In this blog, we’ll look at how to find out your English level using GSE scores, levels, and "I can..." statements.

Why understanding your English level matters

You may wonder, ‘Why is it important for me to know my language level’? If you start studying without knowing your skill level, you might feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or find learning too easy and be put off or not make any learning progress.
Knowing your English level helps you in many ways, such as to:

1. Set realistic goals: Tailor your learning objectives to your current abilities.
2. Choose appropriate materials: Select books, courses, and resources that match your proficiency.
3. Track progress: Measure improvement over time and stay motivated.

GSE levels and what they mean

The GSE levels range from Starter to Expert, each with specific "I can..." statements that describe what you should be able to do at that level. Here’s a breakdown of each level, along with some practical examples:

Teachers all over the world know just how challenging it can be to catch their students’ interest and keep them engaged - and it’s true whether you’re teaching online or in a real-world classroom.

Students have different learning motivations; some may be working towards their exam because they want to, and some because they have to, and the repetitiveness of going over exam tasks can often lead to boredom and a lack of interest in the lesson. 

So, what can we do to increase students’ motivation and add variation to our classes to maintain interest? 

Engage students by adding differentiation to task types

We first need to consider the four main skills and consider how to differentiate how we deliver exam tasks and how we have students complete them. 

Speaking - A communicative, freer practice activity to encourage peer feedback.

Put students into pairs and assign them as A and B. Set up the classroom so pairs of chairs are facing each other - if you’re teaching online, put students in individual breakaway rooms. 

Hand out (or digitally distribute) the first part of a speaking exam, which is often about ‘getting to know you’. Have student A’s act as the examiner and B’s as the candidate. 

Set a visible timer according to the exam timings and have students work their way through the questions, simulating a real-life exam. Have ‘the examiners’ think of something their partner does well and something they think they could improve. You can even distribute the marking scheme and allow them to use this as a basis for their peer feedback. Once time is up, ask student B’s to move to the next ‘examiner’ for the next part of the speaking test. Continue this way, then ask students to switch roles. 

Note: If you teach online and your teaching platforms allow it, you can record the conversations and have students review their own performances. However, for privacy reasons, do not save these videos.

Listening – A student-centered, online activity to practice listening for detail or summarising.

Ask pairs of students to set up individual online conference call accounts on a platform like Teams or Zoom. 

Have pairs call each other without the video on and tell each other a story or a description of something that has happened for their partner to listen to. This could be a show they’ve watched, an album they’ve listened to, or a holiday they’ve been on, for example. Ask students to write a summary of what their partner has said, or get them to write specific information (numbers, or correctly spelt words) such as character or song names or stats, for example. Begin the next class by sharing what students heard. Students can also record the conversations without video for further review and reflection afterwards.

Writing – A story-writing group activity to encourage peer learning.

Give each student a piece of paper and have them draw a face at the top of the page. Ask them to give a name to the face, then write five adjectives about their appearance and five about their personality. You could also have them write five adjectives to describe where the story is set (place). 

Give the story’s opening sentence to the class, e.g. It was a cold, dark night and… then ask students to write their character’s name + was, and then have them finish the sentence. Pass the stories around the class so that each student can add a sentence each time, using the vocabulary at the top of the page to help them. 

Reading – A timed, keyword-based activity to help students with gist.

Distribute a copy of a text to students. Ask them to scan the text to find specific words that you give them, related to the topic. For example, if the text is about the world of work, ask students to find as many jobs or workplace words as they can in the set amount of time. Have students raise their hands or stand up when they have their answers, award points, and have a whole class discussion on where the words are and how they relate to the comprehension questions or the understanding of the text as a whole. 

All 4 skills – A dynamic activity to get students moving.

Set up a circuit-style activity with different ‘stations’ around the classroom, for example: 

• Listening 
• Reading 
• Writing (1 paragraph) 
• Use of English (or grammar/vocabulary). 

Set a timer for students to attempt one part from this exam paper, then have them move round to the next station. This activity can be used to introduce students to certain exam tasks, or a way to challenge students once they’ve built their confidence in certain areas.