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  • 1.  Screener items - language and education - for Afghan refugees

    Posted 05-01-2022 01:09 PM

    Dear TESOL Community,

    Pittsburgh is expecting over 900 Afghan refugees to come to the area early this year.  An organization is working to develop a screener that can be used by resettlement agencies to assess holistic needs and identify areas for referral.

     

    They are looking to identify a standardized measure for reliably assessing language and education-level.

     

    Please share if you have any items/short measures related to language and education you could recommend adding to the screener.

     

    My thanks in advance –

     

    Dawn E. McCormick

    ELI Director, Senior Lecturer, TESOL Certificate Advisor
    University of Pittsburgh  |  Department of Linguistics  |  English Language Institute

    200 Meyran Avenue, Room M21

    Pittsburgh, PA 15260

    USA

    1-412-624-5902
    eli.pitt.edu 



    ------------------------------
    Dawn McCormick
    Associate Director
    University of Pittsburgh English Language Institute
    United States
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  • 2.  RE: Screener items - language and education - for Afghan refugees

    Posted 06-01-2022 02:46 AM
    Hi Dawn, We have developed an automatic speaking test that is free for individual test takers. Please review the test here: www.speechace.com/speaking-test .

    Please let me know if you have questions.

    Thanks,
    Abhishek Gupta
    CEO, Speechace
    Seattle, WA

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    Abhishek Gupta
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Screener items - language and education - for Afghan refugees

    Posted 06-01-2022 10:30 AM
    It's good to have the recommendation for a speaking test, but you will probably have some refugees who are fairly fluent in everyday English, but quite weak in reading and writing. (They learned their English by interacting with Americans, not by doing formal study.)

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    Kitty Purgason
    Biola University
    United States
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Screener items - language and education - for Afghan refugees

    Posted 07-01-2022 11:02 AM
    Dawn -

    Our Intensive English Program at Dallas Baptist University uses HirePro for Versant English Placement Test. This tests prospective students on writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills. Students receive a test code and take the test on their time table. The test is scored automatically and the results are available for us to review.

    I hope this is helpful.

    Judy Morton

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    Judy Morton
    Dallas Baptist University
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Screener items - language and education - for Afghan refugees

    Posted 08-01-2022 08:30 PM
      |   view attached
    On 2022/01/05 at 06:08pm, Dawn McCormick via TESOL International Association wrote:

    > Pittsburgh is expecting over 900 Afghan refugees to come to the area
    > early this year.??An organization is working to develop a screener
    > that can be used by resettlement agencies to assess holistic needs and
    > identify areas for referral.

    > Please share if you have any items/short measures related to language
    > and education you could recommend adding to the screener.

    A while back I made an informal math diagnostic to use with middle
    school / high school newcomer students to get a basic idea of their
    background on basic math.

    The PDF is attached. The original LaTeX and other files are at:

    https://www.chrisspackman.com/educator-resources/

    (links to files are in the margin note)

    I'm happy to make some modifications / updates if that would be
    helpful.

    --
    Chris Spackman (he / him) chris@osugisakae.com

    ESL Coordinator The Graham Family of Schools
    ESL Instructor Columbus State Community College
    Japan Exchange and Teaching Program Wajima, Ishikawa 1995-1998
    Linux user since 1998 Linux User #137532


    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    hs-newcomer-math.pdf   126 KB 1 version
    Original Message