1. TESOL 2016 Electronic Village, April 6, 2016 (11 AM)
Pre-Arrival Assessment and Placement of
ELLs using Synchronous and
Asynchronous Online Tools
Candice J. Marshall, M.A., Earlham College
Email: quinoca@earlham.edu
In Short:
Working at a small, but very diverse, liberal
arts college in the Midwestwith an ESL
instruction staff of 1 ½, with a growing
number of international admissions, we
found that simply relying on post-arrival
COMPASS testing to place students in
classes was leading to increasingly
difficulties and student dissatisfaction with
first year students. To mitigate this, we
devised a pre-screening and placement
process to help alleviate the frenzy ofNew
Student Orientation and post-arrival
placementtesting anxiety by setting up a
way to screen for potential ELL’s and then to
subsequently interview and place them into
the appropriate courses pre-arrival.
Screening for the Pre-Arrival Interview
The admissions office sends all accepted
international student applicantfolders to the
International Programs Office(IPO) once they
have confirmed they will be attending.
From there, the IPO office reviews their file,
checks for submitted testscores (TOEFL,
SAT, ACT), and determines whether they
should be interviewed based on the criteria
previously agreed upon for incoming student
scores (i.e. under a 94 TOEFL should be
screened). Ifno scores were submitted, the
student is automatically flagged for pre-
screening oflanguage skills.
Setting up the Interview:
The list of students who have been “flagged”
for pre-screening then goes to the English
instructors, who, in turn, contact the students
to setup a time for a video interview. Doodle
(doodle.com) was used as the scheduling
tool. The email to the students included
information regarding time zone differences
and the type of program to be used to
conductthe interview (Skype or Firefox
Hello).
Conducting the Interview:
Once the time was arranged, a confirmation
email would be sentand any further
information needed would be
provided/requested (i.e. Skype user name or
link to Firefox Hello Chat)(Firefox Hello had a
lot ofbugs, Skype was preferred).
For the interview itself, a Google Form was
created as a method ofrecording the
student’s responses.In mostcases, students
were on a computer and were able to pull up
the form and follow along as the interviewer
asked the questions. Then after talking about
the question, the studentwould mark their
answer or type their response. The
interviewer also took notes manually during
the discussion. Some students did nothave
access to Google (i.e. in China) and so for
them, the interviewer transcribed their
responses into the form. The last item
required writing sample, which required a bit
more time, but the students were permitted
to complete the writing sample offcamera if
they preferred (to reduce anxiety). For
students without access to the form, they
were asked to respond via email. Upon
completion, the studentwas asked to submit
the form, and the interviewer could check to
make sure it was received.
The form is available at:
http://goo.gl/forms/mFPC80ifW6
Placement:
Based on their fluency and responses and
the courses available, the instructor
determined whether ESL courses would be
necessary, and made the appropriate
recommendations to the IPO, Admissions,
and Registrar’s Office.
Results:
After the1st semester, moststudents’
placements were deemed accurate.