No words can accurately describe such a stupid process!

Okay… I will try my best to soften my language here, though I am tempted to be blunt. Am I angry? Indeed… I am!… For the mere reason that I do care about my trainees’ fate. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for the majority of language trainers/coaches out there! Hey! more often their students fail to get their required language levels, more work for them!… Yet, with all the cuts in the Departments’  language training budgets, I know that some schools are now starving… they always disdained part-time and short term contracts in favour of extensive contracts… well, now, they are less picky! Some of them even lowered their hourly rates by up to $10… but it does not bring them more contracts… I did not change anything to my own practice and contracts are pouring in… now, employers are making their choices based upon quality and prices are less of a concern. Lowering rates means lowering  teachers’ salary (which was never high to start with), therefore many language providers’ staff are probably less qualified than before.

But I am not here to discuss the fate of the numerous language schools in Ottawa. I am rather interested in the fate of all these people who need to meet the language requirements of their positions and who became the victims of a vicious system.

Of course, there was the introduction of the new reading comprehension test at the beginning of August… something that is now making people more miserable than ever… at least, before, they were able to concentrate their effort on preparing for the written expression and oral tests… now they also have to try and better their abilities to read (well… what am I saying here? it is anything but a reading test!) in French…  Seema who now needs CBC after having achieved her BBB took the test again a couple of weeks ago: she said it was a real nightmare and she did not have enough time to finish the 60 questions… of course she missed the C… And, now, even Francophones with an exemption in oral proficiency cannot get their levels in both reading comprehension and written expression in English… they are now looking for training and most of them write to me in English and their messages are flawless! So… what should I conclude???… and do I have to add that there are no samples of the new test to practice with on Campus Direct? Great!!!…

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It is coming on July 30! Fasten your seat belts!!!

Do I have to mention that I have been overloaded with work lately?… I think I did not write a line in the past two months and, believe me, it was not due to me being away on vacation!  I do no longer know what a vacation is indeed!…

I really do not know what is happening because, usually, there is less language testing in the PSC during the summer… yet, this year, there is not respite. If I had to guess, I would say it is probably due to baby boomers’ massive departure from the work force. Therefore there is an urgent need to replace them! Whatever the reasons are, it is real and I am busier than ever… Many of my trainees were tested these past two months and they all got the  levels they needed to comply with their job position requirements (or even higher). It would be too long to name them individually in this post, therefore I will congratulate them all in one sentence:

Congratulations to everyone!

It has been a rumor for many months but, now, it is official: there will be a new version of the reading comprehension test as soon as July 30… Instead of 65 questions, there will be 60 but the time (90 minutes) will be reduced to 80 minutes… consequently I do not describe this as a bonus! Apparently there will be five more questions at the end (which will not count) and candidates’ answers will be used for statistics purpose!?!

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La prononciation des mots en français… parfois un dilemme!

Once again I have been neglecting my blog… It is not always easy to juggle with my schedule and, when I have some free time, I usually have to take care of my household.

There was a slow down in the PSC SLE testing though… it is always like this when the financial year ends: it takes a while before the Departments get their new budgets going. Nevertheless, requests for training are still coming in!

Patrice finally got the results for his three tests (after several months) and he got EEC… quite an achievement indeed!

Congratulations Patrice!

Adelaide also got the results of her oral interaction test and she got the B required for her to keep her current position and, even better, she was offered a promotion within her division!

Congratulations Adelaide!

And… Monica, who was totally depressed after her oral test and had nightmares thinking she had only achieved and A, got her results last week and she got her C!…

Congratulations Monica!

Therefore I am happy… it looks like everyone managed to get their required language levels… Yet I have to say that I have them work like slaves sometimes!… Getting prepared for the SLE tests is a long and painful process and I really do admire my trainees. I am not convinced I would be able to suffer as much!

That being said, I had time to browse some tests and I finally decide to have you try and take an exercise on pronunciation… though pronunciation in French is more or less consistent, sometimes there are words that are not pronounced the way they are written (or maybe they are!). I took the test myself and I got 50/50… I am sure you can get a perfect score too!

After some freezing temperatures last week, we are back to above normal tempartures this week… Go figure!

It is such a pleasure to see stuff like this!

If you are not sitting on some patio somewhere, click here to play my game!

Have fun!

;-)

 

Photo credit by Philip Lean, Canberra, Australia

 

 

Posted in french culture, jeux linguistiques, languages, second language evaluation, second language testing tools | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments