What is new in the SLE testing department?… Not much except that lots of people are being tested all the time. Since most entry level positions now require levels BBB, more candidates have to be tested at some point in the hiring processes. Of course, the new Reading Comprehension test led to a wave of panic… before, no one really cared about this test, which was relatively easy… today, it is a whole different tune… we also have to prepare our trainees to take that exam… as if working on the Written Expression and the Oral tests was not enough! Well… it keeps us busy I guess!

Before I start talking about something that has been bugging me for a while now, I would like to let everyone know that Seema finally got her C in oral after several attempts! I am very happy for her because she had lost her zest lately… she was craving to go back to work… after too much time spent into boot camps!

Congratulations Seema!!!

Most of the time, when we are preparing people for their oral exam, we do not encounter resistance because they are ready to do whatever it takes to achieve the level they need. Take Marjorie for instance… Angèle and I prepared her for the C on a full-time basis in October and, believe me, it was not easy for either one of us. Yet I have to say that Marjorie was a great team player… I was literally bombarding her with grammar and syntax notions every single day and she always made a point to apply her new skills when practicing with Angèle later in the day. At the end, she could not be more ready to confront her torturer last week… she had integrated all the notions she needed to make use of during the test and, most of all, she had gained confidence in her abilities tremendously… Angèle and I know that she performed very well when she went for her interview… unfortunately, her assessor was the one everybody in town dread to have… because this “urban legend” has the reputation to never give level C… will Marjorie break the pattern?… Actually, after more than one week, she still did not hear about her results which is unusual for someone who is a PSC employee… «À suivre…»

That being said, it sometimes happens that some people who are asking for our help are skeptical and refuse to follow our instructions and advice. But, after arguing for a while, most of them realize that we are professionals and we know our job! Yes… I agree… our methods are unorthodox and we push people to their limits so that they will give their best during the test… We put them in a box where there is little (if no) room to move… Why? Because we know exactly what will be expected from them during the oral interview… therefore we provide them with the tools, tips and strategies they will need in order to satisfy the assessors and meet the criterias of the level they need to achieve…

Of course, people who never took a PSC SLE test before or took the test prior to June 2008 are more or less expecting a 45 minute conversation with someone who will arbitrarily decide if they pass their levels or not… well, it is not that simple. First of all, it is a TEST and not a casual conversation… Candidates are expected to demonstrate specific abilities, use specific complex structures and accurate work-related vocabulary… and rigid criterias have been established for each level… I have seen many people who were fluent in French fail this test because they had not shown enough of what is needed to achieve a C for instance… Yes! it is frustrating and… Yes! it is ridiculous to some extent… yet there is nothing we can do in order to change the way this test is conducted. And those who do not want to abide by those rules will probably not get the levels they need…

A couple of weeks ago, I was a bit frustrated… and I opened up to Marjorie… she was in that predicament herself and I wanted to know how she felt about my method… of course, she agreed that it was a painful process but she also knew that she had no other options, having already missed her C once… Then I asked her how I should explain and describe my drastic method and I am quoting her here:

I developed a strategy specifically designed to target and address all four elements of the PSC oral expression exam. Rather than focusing on generic language instruction, I focus students on the vocabulary expected from PSC employees in the workplace. The test is not a conversation, it is an exam whereby you must demonstrate specific elements of speech. My philosophy is to situate and prepare students to be comfortable with all four elements of the exam and to prepare them for a successful result at each level.

 I think this summarizes the method I use to prepare my trainees to be successful at the oral test. And… like it or not, it has been proven to be efficient since most of our students obtain the levels they actually need to meet the language requirements of their positions.

Therefore, for those of you who are looking for help in order to be well prepared for the oral test, please read the above carefully and make sure that you are ready to make the commitment of being put into a box and work on doing exactly what will be expected from you when you will be facing your examiner… and remember, it is a TEST… not a conversation with someone you will ever have a coffee with afterwards…

«La vie, c’est une boîte d’instruments qui piquent et coupent. À toute heure nous nous ensanglantons les mains.»

Alphonse Daudet

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!!!…

 What bugs me the most right now is that, for over two months now, none of my trainees got a C in oral… except for the ones who were tested at CRA, Health Canada or over the phone (some people even got exemptions). All those who were tested in person at Slater failed… and those who achieved a C were tested more than two or three times. Is it a plot of some sort?… I hate to say this but… it appears this happened after a floor at Slater was flooded and they had to move their assessors on another floor… I know… it is ridiculous… but I cannot see why so many people are denied their C other than the examiners being frustrated (or truly incompetent)…

Take Josie for instance… born and raised in Montreal, she communicates very well in French and she does not have any English accent when she speaks… one would think that she is a Francophone from Montreal. Of course she makes some mistakes, but do I have to remind everyone that Francophones also make mistakes when they speak? Well… she was tested twice and, both times, she missed her C… I am sorry, but what are they looking for? It is beyond my understanding… and also beyond any logic…  On the other hand, they distribute Bs like candies to even people who can hardly put together a simple sentence with a subject, a verb (non conjugated most of the time) and one object!… Consequently, Josie who communicates efficiently and someone who only gets by in French end up with the same language profile, yet there is a huge gap between the two! And… on their feedback sheets, here is what we can read:

“Comprehension: You demonstrated an ability to understand linguistically complex questions, speaker viewpoints and conversations about abstract topics.”

Well… such a statement is accurate in Josie’s case… and I am sorry, but… someone who can demonstrate such abilities is NOT a B… and even a C is not described as bilingual, therefore there should not be such a fuss about abstract topics!… so… tell me… what do they want?

The only conclusion I can draw from this non sense is that the PSC needs people to fill in the entry level positions left vacant by the babyboomers leaving massively the workforce… therefore, they lowered their criterias for the B level (otherwise they would not have anyone they could hire) – in my book, the current B level in oral proficiency is the equivalent of an A before all the pointless reforms – and they raised the criterias for the C level… bottom line, we now see a flock of people detaining a B… yet their abilities to communicate in the second language are quite different.

Well… «au risque d’avoir l’air méchante», the only thing this test is assessing is the examiners’ inabilities to judge someone’s abilities to communicate in their second language… and one question pops up in my mind: who are these judges and what is their background?…

«Pour ne point rougir devant sa victime, l’homme qui a commencé par la blesser, la tue.»

Honoré de Blazac

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!?!

The first question that comes to mind is: will the new test be more or less the same or will it be more difficult. Well… it will be much more difficult. From what I heard (former students who voluntarily participated in the pilot project), it is not a piece of cake!… I agree that the current test may be a bit too easy, and it is precisely for that reason that the PPC made the decision to change it. I am not against designing a new version of the test… but I do not understand why the gap between the former test and the new one is so huge! 

When the written expression test was changed in October 2007,  it passed from 55 rather easy questions to 80 very difficult questions. The rate of failure was very high and the PSC decided to standardize the scores (which was helping people with low raw scores, but punishing the ones with high raw scores)… Finally, in June 2008, the 65 question version of the test was introduced: did it really help people to pass?… It is hard to tell… since they cut in the time as well and kept the same amount of long questions, I would be tempted to say that it did not really make a noticeable difference… and the difficulty level remained the same.

I would not be surprised that, in a few months, the reading comprehension test would go through the same process.  For sure, the difficulty level of the new test is higher… there will no longer be questions in English and, in many cases, candidates will have to fill in the blanks or finish a sentence/paragraph with the correct syntax, grammar and accurate vocabulary… It sounds more like a grammar test than a reading test as a matter of fact.

Right now, I can only anticipate what it will be… I am sure I will know more in a couple of weeks when my trainees will start taking the new reading comprehension test. Then I will be able to talk more about it… I am sure of one thing though, it will be difficult and I doubt we will see many candidates get an E like it has been for several years now. Therefore, in a week from now, all of the three SLE tests will be a pain in the neck!

In the maze of all this testing, Le Club français manages to meet once a month for some activities in French. Last Friday we went to «Le Théâtre de l’Île» in Hull where we had dinner on the patio and attended a play… As usual, we all had a great time though many players were missing due to summer vacation… Judge by yourself:

Happy Alice, Mark and Seema

Mark, La Dame dragon and Corey having a great time

Two big smiles...

Having a great time here!

Great food, excellent play and a friendly environment

And we will do it again soon… with more participants hopefully! In spite of the painful process of preparing for the PSC SLE tests, many of us became real good friends in real life… and it is one of the reasons why I do love my job!… I would not do anything else…

«On ne se lasse pas de changer les institutions, ne pouvant changer les hommes.»

Jean-Lucien Arréat

On the weekend I came across something that kind of disturbed me… Originating from any Federal Departments, I would have probably giggled and made fun of their «français boiteux»… but what I read originated from the «bureau des langues officielles» in Montreal. Of course this generic text can be found in the PSC templates, which I assume were created in Ottawa… yet one would think that Francophones located in Montreal would have spotted this text right away (unless they never read what they are actually sending to candidates)!…

When my trainees get their official results, most of the time, they forward me the email they received from the PSC… since I am always eager to know their results, I never read the generic introduction message of this email. Honestly I am not interested in whatever is written… my only concern is: did my student make it?… I made an exception last Saturday, I probably had some spare time since I read the whole thing… Then I had the shock of my life! «Quelle horreur!!!»… I had to read this paragraph more than once to make sure I was not having a bad dream:

VEUILLEZ NE PAS RÉPONDRE À CE COURRIEL VIA VOTRE SYSTÈME DE COURRIEL. VOTRE COURRIEL NE SERA PAS RÉPONDU.

What in the hell is that?!!?… Everything is utterly incorrect in this short paragraph!… It looks like someone scanned the English version of this warning through some Google free translator:

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL VIA YOUR EMAIL SYSTEM. YOUR EMAIL WILL NOT BE ANSWERED.

No one could ever come up with a better literal translation than this one!… Even with time and effort, nothing would beat this paragraph. Maybe it is time for a crash course in French… First of all, «courriel» is the electronic version of «courrier» (mail) in French… it actually stands for the longer version «courrier électronique»… what we have here is a «message électronique», not a «courriel»… usually, when referring to the email system, we say «système de messagerie électronique»… and, grammaticaly, we do not use the passive voice in French for expressions such as I have been told or your email will not be answered… Even my beginners know that!… Am I being a fussy purist?… I really do not think so! I just cannot stand anyone murdering my mother tongue!… Here is what I do with this horrific paragraph:

VEUILLEZ NE PAS RÉPONDRE À CE COURRIEL VIA VOTRE SYSTÈME DE COURRIEL. VOTRE COURRIEL NE SERA PAS RÉPONDU.

Not much left indeed!… To make sure that Francophones who do not happen to be bilingual would understand such a warning, it should read like this:

VEUILLEZ NE PAS RÉPONDRE À CE MESSAGE VIA VOTRE SYSTÈME DE MESSAGERIE ÉLECTRONIQUE PARCE QUE VOUS NE RECEVREZ AUCUNE RÉPONSE.

Et voilà!… Le tour est joué!… Actually, my first reaction was to reply to this email in order to pinpoint the mistakes… then I realized that no one would read it!… L’ironie du sort quoi!… Of course, I could see this as a pathetic joke… and move on… yet I do have a serious problem when I think of all those Anglophones having their second language skills assessed by people from the PSC… If those who claim to be a so-called panel of experts in French cannot even write (or at least review and correct) such a short and simple paragraph according to the French language standards, well… I am scared!… What if their assessment were based upon their own flaws and mistakes?… I have seen enough of those in both their reading comprehension and written expression tests to be worried!… Why would it be different when they are evaluating candidates on their abilities to communicate orally in French?… It is certainly something to ponder upon seriously… Anyone claiming the right of assessing others on their second language abilities should be flawless experts… therefore each time I come across something that tells me otherwise, I do question the present system…

“J’ai toujours rencontré si peu d’esprit autour de moi qu’il a bien fallu que j’utilise le mien”

Paul Léautaud

Congratulations Joyce!

Useless to say that I have been pondering upon a few things since I heard the news… I prepare many people to tackle the SLE tests, either online or face-to-face… As far as reading comprehension and written expression are concerned, all of my students obtained the levels they were seeking and half of them even scored higher (with the exception of Cynthia who missed her B by one answer on the written expression exam and, unfortunately, she was never invited to take the test a second time… and in Dave’s case, it was due to the PPC’s failure to follow the specifications of his accommodation request).

It would take too much time to go back far in time to have a look at my statistics… therefore I did concentrate my analysis on the results observed since the beginning of 2009.

So far I had/have 24 students to prepare for their oral interaction tests. Fifteen of them already took the exam…  six of them obtained their levels the first time they were tested (and one of them got a higher level). Then there are the ones who had failed to meet their required levels on the first trial and came to me for help: five in total and two of them passed on the second trial. I am waiting for Maggie’s results in NYC (I am confident that she got a C on her first attempt) and I never heard back from Lara in Brussels (I do not know whether she received her C or not). The 15 people who already took the oral interaction test had between one and 12 hours of training with me. The other nine still do not have a date yet… hopefully they will be given more time to prepare than the ones who ended up with only one week or two (and, in several cases, with only a couple of days!)…

Out of 15, five were tested over the phone: three of them had an assessor located in Montreal and they all passed their required levels (and Joyce surpassed hers by receiving an exemption)… as for Lara and Maggie (no results in yet), I do not know if their examiners were located in Montreal or at Foreign Affairs in Ottawa… this will have to be confirmed later on.

Eight were tested in face-to-face interviews by either an assessor from Slater or someone from their own Department in Ottawa. Three did not pass their required levels, three passed the first time and two obtained their levels the second time… Four of them who were tested for a B were led into the last part of the exam, yet no one was given a C…

Finally, two were tested in face-to-face interviews in Montreal… both of them were looking for a B and both were led in the fourth part of the test. They ended up with an A!…

Keeping in mind that the oral interaction test is the same, no matter how and where the test is held, results should be more or less the same based upon what I could observe among my trainees… yet it is not the case! For instance, take Lauren who was tested over the phone and got her B after three hours of training with me… and take Yong and Luna who were tested in face-to-face interviews in Montreal and both led in the last part of the exam (what was not the case for Lauren)… If I do compare those three people’s strenghts and weaknesses, I would say that they are at the same level. Yong can certainly communicate in French without confusing people… same thing with Luna who, by the way, did very well at the in-house SLE testing since she was offered a French essential position (she has been working in a French environment for the past month and apparently she is doing very well). Greg will be the next one to be tested in Montreal and it will be interesting to see his results… although he is not very strong in grammar, I would say he speaks French the way Joyce does… he is at ease and he sounds natural.

From what I observed in Ottawa, I tend to think that assessors do not give higher levels than the ones required. Alicia obtained a mere B and she is exactly at Joyce’s level of speech (with a similar background) in French… would she have obtained an exemption if her interview had been done over the phone? Same thing with Christie, she got a B and she should have obtained a C…

What Alicia did or did not do? Was she more nervous than Joyce was when she went for her interview?… Well… no one was more nervous than Joyce was (she had bursted into tears that morning)… was she less self-confident? Not at all…  therefore, why did one get an exemption and did the other one only get a B?… And why were Luna and Yong taken in the last part of the test if they were indeed unable to get more than an A?… I can accept that someone who sounds strong enough to get a C might be led in the last part of the interview for verification and ends up with a B… but taking someone two steps down does not agree with me at all!

Based upon those facts, I can only draw one conclusion: results depend on the assessor… although the PSC made every effort to standardize the oral interaction test so that it would be 100% objective, it is an utopia to think that there is no room left for subjectivity on the assessors’ part. Unless they fire all their examiners and replace them with robots, the oral interaction interview will never be objective!… The only way it could happen would be to have candidates study and memorize answers for each and every questions of the exam… Then, perhaps, assessors could be objective (well… given they would have nothing bugging them in their personal lives to distract them)  because all they would have to do is substract one point for each little mistake done… In other words, it would be like taking a written expression test orally!!!

“C’est au bout de la vieille corde qu’on tisse la nouvelle”

Proverbe africain