Okay… maybe I am a bit (a lot) frustrated these days!… Do not get me wrong though! I really do love what I do… Preparing all these people for their SLE tests is, I admit, often frustrating yet I know I am doing something useful for them. Without me, they would be left on their own and chances are they would get depressed: something that would not help them pass their required levels!
Yesterday I got an email from Alicia giving me her feedback on the tests she had written on Tuesday morning (we are still waiting for her results by the way!)… according to her it went well (of course it did, Alicia IS bilingual). She said that all the long questions were piled up at the very end of the written expression test (from the information I got through my trainees, this new format came into effect in March) and Oh! surprise, the C part with the long questions disappeared! No more “Lequel des choix suivants comporte un ou plusieurs changements permettant d’améliorer la première (deuxième, troisième) phrase du paragraphe C?”… Good riddance!… I admit I was not very good myself at guessing what the so-called panel of experts thought was the best version since none of the proposed choices were actually written according to the proper French standards. Results on this test must have been quite low for the past 10 months… usually they do not modify the tests until they come up with a new version (which in this case is due to come out some time in the summer).
On Wednesday, Christie also wrote me right after her oral interview… she was very happy because the assessor had taken her into the fourth part of the interview… Therefore, the B is guaranteed (and it is the level required for a new job position). Today is Friday and we still have not heard about her results. In my mind, it is a real good sign!… Usually when they verify if candidates seeking a B may be a C by taking them into the last part of the test, they can tell right away if the candidates are not quite ready. Therefore, the results come in the very next morning with a B rating. I conclude they are listening to Christie’s tape, which is a very good thing! Though, in that case, it is 50 50… she can receive either a C or a B… But I guess we will have to wait until Monday before we get any news!
Yesterday I met with Marina who will take her English oral interaction test for the third time in about 10 days… This young lady IS bilingual! And if she were not, she would not be working within the Public Service of Canada in Ottawa. I do not know one single French speaking public servant who cannot communicate in English! If Anglophones, even after months of full-time training, can no longer communicate in French (were they even able to at some point?) a couple of weeks after their return on the job; Francophones, who were not very good in English when they started, improve by the day!… The reason is quite simple: all the work is done in English around here!
Why, since she does not have to struggle with subjunctive and conditional in English, does Marina have such a hard time to pass her C in oral? It is because of the nature of the test itself!… Which has nothing to do with communication. Actually it is done in a way that rather assesses candidates’ methodology skills… Everything is about listening, summarizing, debating and organizing thoughts (the way someone would do for a university paper!)… Duh! How many times did I see students unable to summarize? Too many… A book story can be summarized in four lines, yet they would come up with a 20 page essay! How many times did I read papers with no introduction, no development and no conclusion? Again… too many! This is why courses called Méthodologie du travail were compulsory in both college and university… And what about people who are more visual than auditive? They write down everything they hear… so when they are asked to summarize, they cannot! They give all the unecessary petty details… Younger I was exclusively visual and, to ease my life, I took stenography courses so that my hand would not be sore by the end of the day… I also took speed reading courses in order to not waste time reading stuff that was not essential to my research… I had many classes on Méthodologie du travail and it helped me a great deal! I was also very good at organizing my thoughts on paper… then I could do an exposé that would not be all over the place… All this stuff took me several years!… Well… SLE oral test candidates are not necessarily skilled researchers unless they have years of scholar work behind them! Yet it is not that easy to transfer those skills into the second language!
As for Luna, she was quite disappointed when she got her results earlier this week… she thought she had done well… YES! I am sure she had done well, but the nature of the test is about anything except communicating on a daily basis… What do you think I am teaching my students when preparing them for their oral tests? Right!… anything but French! So… yes there are days I feel frustrated and I would like to sit down with the so-called panel of experts and try to teach them some common sense!… Spoken language CANNOT be measured quantitatively… only qualitatively… when will they get the idea?
Anyways I do not have the power to change things… all I can do is to give my trainees my 200% and hope for the best! I will conclude this post on something Alicia wrote me and I thank her for that… she made my day!
I do offer other activities… It is precisely because of the painful process of teaching to the tests that we have Le Club français which, by the way, should meet soon. We have so many people to honour for their achievements!… If it were not for all the great people I do train, I would have left the field a long time ago… I still do it because I do care for all of them: former students, present students and future students!… Do not worry! I intend to stay around for several years and I will continue expressing my views on the current SLE system!… Stay tuned!
“Un être qui s’habitue à tout, voilà je pense la meilleure définition qu’on puisse donner de l’homme”
Fiodor Dostoïevski
I Just DON’T Get It!!!
Okay… maybe I am a bit (a lot) frustrated these days!… Do not get me wrong though! I really do love what I do… Preparing all these people for their SLE tests is, I admit, often frustrating yet I know I am doing something useful for them. Without me, they would be left on their own and chances are they would get depressed: something that would not help them pass their required levels!
Yesterday I got an email from Alicia giving me her feedback on the tests she had written on Tuesday morning (we are still waiting for her results by the way!)… according to her it went well (of course it did, Alicia IS bilingual). She said that all the long questions were piled up at the very end of the written expression test (from the information I got through my trainees, this new format came into effect in March) and Oh! surprise, the C part with the long questions disappeared! No more “Lequel des choix suivants comporte un ou plusieurs changements permettant d’améliorer la première (deuxième, troisième) phrase du paragraphe C?”… Good riddance!… I admit I was not very good myself at guessing what the so-called panel of experts thought was the best version since none of the proposed choices were actually written according to the proper French standards. Results on this test must have been quite low for the past 10 months… usually they do not modify the tests until they come up with a new version (which in this case is due to come out some time in the summer).
On Wednesday, Christie also wrote me right after her oral interview… she was very happy because the assessor had taken her into the fourth part of the interview… Therefore, the B is guaranteed (and it is the level required for a new job position). Today is Friday and we still have not heard about her results. In my mind, it is a real good sign!… Usually when they verify if candidates seeking a B may be a C by taking them into the last part of the test, they can tell right away if the candidates are not quite ready. Therefore, the results come in the very next morning with a B rating. I conclude they are listening to Christie’s tape, which is a very good thing! Though, in that case, it is 50 50… she can receive either a C or a B… But I guess we will have to wait until Monday before we get any news!
Yesterday I met with Marina who will take her English oral interaction test for the third time in about 10 days… This young lady IS bilingual! And if she were not, she would not be working within the Public Service of Canada in Ottawa. I do not know one single French speaking public servant who cannot communicate in English! If Anglophones, even after months of full-time training, can no longer communicate in French (were they even able to at some point?) a couple of weeks after their return on the job; Francophones, who were not very good in English when they started, improve by the day!… The reason is quite simple: all the work is done in English around here!
Why, since she does not have to struggle with subjunctive and conditional in English, does Marina have such a hard time to pass her C in oral? It is because of the nature of the test itself!… Which has nothing to do with communication. Actually it is done in a way that rather assesses candidates’ methodology skills… Everything is about listening, summarizing, debating and organizing thoughts (the way someone would do for a university paper!)… Duh! How many times did I see students unable to summarize? Too many… A book story can be summarized in four lines, yet they would come up with a 20 page essay! How many times did I read papers with no introduction, no development and no conclusion? Again… too many! This is why courses called Méthodologie du travail were compulsory in both college and university… And what about people who are more visual than auditive? They write down everything they hear… so when they are asked to summarize, they cannot! They give all the unecessary petty details… Younger I was exclusively visual and, to ease my life, I took stenography courses so that my hand would not be sore by the end of the day… I also took speed reading courses in order to not waste time reading stuff that was not essential to my research… I had many classes on Méthodologie du travail and it helped me a great deal! I was also very good at organizing my thoughts on paper… then I could do an exposé that would not be all over the place… All this stuff took me several years!… Well… SLE oral test candidates are not necessarily skilled researchers unless they have years of scholar work behind them! Yet it is not that easy to transfer those skills into the second language!
As for Luna, she was quite disappointed when she got her results earlier this week… she thought she had done well… YES! I am sure she had done well, but the nature of the test is about anything except communicating on a daily basis… What do you think I am teaching my students when preparing them for their oral tests? Right!… anything but French! So… yes there are days I feel frustrated and I would like to sit down with the so-called panel of experts and try to teach them some common sense!… Spoken language CANNOT be measured quantitatively… only qualitatively… when will they get the idea?
Anyways I do not have the power to change things… all I can do is to give my trainees my 200% and hope for the best! I will conclude this post on something Alicia wrote me and I thank her for that… she made my day!
I do offer other activities… It is precisely because of the painful process of teaching to the tests that we have Le Club français which, by the way, should meet soon. We have so many people to honour for their achievements!… If it were not for all the great people I do train, I would have left the field a long time ago… I still do it because I do care for all of them: former students, present students and future students!… Do not worry! I intend to stay around for several years and I will continue expressing my views on the current SLE system!… Stay tuned!
“Un être qui s’habitue à tout, voilà je pense la meilleure définition qu’on puisse donner de l’homme”