This presentation discusses the English Second Language Assessment (ESLA) used in New Brunswick. The ESLA evaluates students' English proficiency through four components: listening, reading, writing, and oral proficiency interviews. It assesses what students can do with English in real-life situations. The presentation reviews the standards and test specifications for each component, providing examples of question types for reading and details about scoring rubrics for writing and oral interviews. Scores on the four components are weighted equally and combined to calculate an overall ESLA result.

1. 2016 AEI Summer Institute
English as a Second Language
Assessment/Reassessment
ESLA/R
Presenter: Cheryl Miles, Learning Specialist,
Literacy Assessments
Assessment and Evaluation Branch
NB Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

2. Learning Targets/Goals
At the end of this presentation, participants will …
•understand the purpose of ESLA.
•be familiar with the ESLA Test Specifications
document and the 4 components of ESLA.
•be familiar with the ESLA standards.
•have an awareness of Balanced Assessment.

3. What does ESLA assess?
• The level of English proficiency demonstrated
by the learner
• What the students can do as English language
learners and how well they can do it at a given
point in time
• Indicator of how well a learner uses the English
language in real-life situations/contexts and
applies those competencies to a task

4. What is ESLA/R?
English Second Language Assessment (Grade 11)
English Second Language Reassessment (Grade 12)
• an assessment of students’ English literacy abilities
in all four language skills
• a requirement for students attending the Concord
Colleges of Sino-Canada who wish to obtain a New
Brunswick High School Diploma
• a criteria - standards based assessment where
students are required to meet targets appropriate to
two years of non-immersion English language
instruction
• Students in the Concord Colleges apply for
acceptance to post-secondary English institutions.

5. What are the components of
ESLA/R?
4 Components:
•Listening
•Reading
•Writing
•Speaking – Oral Proficiency Interviews

6. ESLA Listening Component
Test Specifications
Book B --- Listening --- 30 - 40 minutes
Purpose: Assess the students’ ability to follow and
understand a range of spoken materials (e.g.,
announcements, news programs, presentations,
conversations, etc.)
Six passages: 4 monologues and 2 dialogues
Task: answer 50 multiple choice questions
Audio provided on USB memory stick
Listening Standards – page 2 Test Specifications

7. Helpful hints for listening…
• Practice the “who, what, when, where, why” line
of questions with the appropriate response.
• Warm-up activity to begin each class
• Additional ideas?

8. ESLA Reading Component
Test Specifications
• Book A --- Reading --- 90 minutes
• Assesses Reading Comprehension
• Reading Achievement Standards – pages 5-6
Test Specifications

9. Reading Comprehension Text and Question Types
Text Type Number of Passages Question Types and
Percentage on Reading
Component
Number of
Questions
Literary Text
Continuous Prose
• 2 - 3 Literal – 50% 22-28
Information Text
•Continuous
Information Text
•Non-Continuous
Information Text
•2 - 3
•2 - 3
Inferential/Interpretive – 25% 11-14
Personal/Critical/Evaluative 25% 11-14
Total Number of
Passages
6 - 9 passages Total Number of Questions 45-55

10. Responding to Reading

11. Writing Component
Test Specifications
• Assesses Writing skills according to the ESLA
Writing Achievement Standards
Booklet C – Writing prompts provided on separate sheets
• Exercise I 60 minutes
• Exercise II 60 minutes
• Writing is marked during the last week of July by the
ESLA Team and Concord College teachers

12. WRITINGSTANDARDS

13. Writing Standards Exemplar and
Rationale
• Writing standards are based on the traits of
writing
• Strengths-based – What the writer can do with
evidence of control (Appropriate Achievement)
or command (Strong Achievement)
• In order for a piece of writing to be deemed
Appropriate Achievement or Strong
Achievement it must possess all of the writing
traits listed for that category.

14. Speaking Component
Oral Proficiency Interviews
• Administered by ESLA Team at each Concord
College
• 30 minutes per interview
• Completed 1 on 1
• Approximately 20 minutes of interview time with
remaining time for interviewer to score and
prepare for next interview

15. ORALINTERVIEW
STANDARDS
LEVEL CRITERIA
UNRATEABLE Can provide no intelligible answers including name
*Talks in own native language
NOVICE * Repeat/rephrase questions often
Speaks in isolated words and phrases
Not able to participate in conversations
Some memorized material and ability to use it
* Very limited vocabulary
BASIC
Survival
Interviewer works
hard to keep a
conversation going
Can survive in a second language
Can say a lot of simple things; buy basic food items, provide
personal information, standard social exchange, school directions
* Can get into, through and out of a situation
Reactive, answering but not asking many questions – will ask if
prompted
Fluency slow, strained, except for routine expressions
Pronunciation errors frequent / intelligible to someone who is
used to ESL
BASIC PLUS
Some give and take in
conversations
Can participate in short conversations, descriptions, narrations
Shows more independence, spontaneity, asks questions but may
require prompts to do so
INTERMEDIATE
More reciprocity -
The interview begins
to have a more
conversational feel.
Can provide information
Provide autobiographical information in some detail
Give directions, accurate instructions, in area of personal
experience or interest
Describe / tell using past, present and future tenses
Speak confidently, hesitates, uses paraphrases and fillers
Pronunciation intelligible, often faulty
Vocabulary sufficient to speak confidently

16. OPI Exemplar and Rationale
Rainy B+ JM.MP3

17. OPI Rationale
ESLA OPI Exemplar - B+ , Rainy
A basic plus must include all characteristics from both basic and basic plus descriptors.
Can participate in short conversations, descriptions, narrations
• I like Rainy days … Because the rainy day make me relax and feel perfect. … The air is very
fresh.
• I like to go skating and c-a-m-p-i-n-g, go hiking. It very interesting and healthy.
• I think Shanghai is like my hometown. Shanghai has many delicious food. My aunt … I go
with my parents to Shanghai to visit her.
Shows more independence, spontaneity, asks questions but may require prompts to do so.
• I like to go skating and c-a-m-p-i-n-g, go hiking. It very interesting and healthy.
• I think Shanghai is like my hometown. Shanghai has many delicious food. My aunt … I go
with my parents to Shanghai to visit her.
• I like go shopping with my friends. I like many clothes. Do you know Talbot? It is a shop
internet. I buy my clothes.

18. Calculation of Results English Second
Language Assessment / Reassessment
• 4 Components
ORAL
READING Weighted Equally
WRITING
LISTENING

19. ESLA/R Scoring
Oral = H2*10
(Numeric oral value multiplied by 10)
Oral Ratings: ('U'=0) ('N'=3) ('B'=4) ('B+'=5) ('I'=6) ('I+'=7) ('A'=8) ('A+'=9) ('S'=10)
Listening = score of 50 *2
(Listening score multiplied by 2)
Reading = score of 50*2 (score out of 50 X 2)
Writing
Writing Ratings: (DNW=*), ( BAA=1), (AA=2), and (SA=3)
Overall score = SUM(I2,K2,M2,P2)/4 .
(overall score adding the four weighted scores, then dividing by 4.
cut point 43
0 - 43 Unsuccessful 44-100 Successful

21. Balanced Assessment

22. QUESTIONS?