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

Yet, in this absurd process, great news keep coming in… for instance Stefan, who had been in the SLE testing process for more than five months, finally got the results of his oral interaction test last Friday. He got his B!… he is now relieved although he will have to wait probably a long time before he knows whether he got the position he applied for or not…

Congratulations Stefan!

Aaaah… the hiring process in the Public Service of Canada!… I really do not know if I could sustain such pressure myself… probably not, merely because I have no patience for red tape administration and I have zero tolerance when it comes to stupidity. I know I would be the worse civil servant ever!… Indeed, either I would quit the job after five minutes or they would fire me after my first day!… But I know my limitations and I would never apply for any government job positions!… I do believe it takes lots of nerves to work there… and, in many ways, I do admire those who can do it and adapt…

What frustrates me the most is probably the inconsistency of the hiring process… Of course, the numerous written exams, the long fake interviews and the SLE testing basically stay the same… as well as the order they have to be taken. Yet it does not mean that change does not occur between the beginning of a competition and its ending… and some modifications are major and quite unfair…

Take Krystal’s case for instance… she had applied for two distinct full time job positions within the same Department here, in Ottawa, more than a year ago… She went through the whole hiring process without losing faith, although she shed some tears once in a while… She was a real trooper!

In December, she was told that she would receive a letter of offer soon… with that information in her sleeve, she came to Ottawa to look for an apartment… she found one, but she lost it because the promised letter never came in… she was quite disappointed and angry… two weeks ago she told me she had given up and she was convinced that she had fallen into the cracks of the system. Well, I knew she had not… because it is part of this endless painful process… no one actually cares about the candidates who are kept in the dark regarding their fate… they have a process to abide by and they will never show initiative (sometimes I do wonder if they actually can think on their own!)… consequently they do not return desperate calls from candidates or reply to their emails…

I was right!… Last week she was contacted by a manager… one would think that Krystal jumped to the roof with joy, right?… Well, not quite… she was indeed angrier than ever!… What was a permanent full time job when she applied turned into a one year contract job!… Now, the question is: will she take the risk to quit her current job in Toronto to move to Ottawa, not knowing if her contract will be renewed?… But, for now, there is no rush since she has not heard from that individual yet…

As for Corey… this one is certainly invincible when it comes to harass these people!… At the beginning of December, he had started asking questions about why he had not received his reading comprehension and written expression tests results after more than six weeks… of course, his contact in the Department he applied never dared to answer…  Being an excellent Google researcher, he found a website where he was able to chat with a real human being about his concerns… after the Holidays, he resumed his conversation with this individual… in the meantime he had contacted the PPC directly and they had sent him his results… Like Krystal, he thought he had fallen into the cracks of the system since he had met the language requirements, but had not been invited to take the oral interaction test.  To make a story short, it appeared that no one had been informed of their results and he was asked how he had received his!… His answer was simple: “Because I did ask personally the PPC to send them to me!”… Kind of hilarious…

Two weeks ago, he finally got an email… he forwarded it to me and, both being too excited, we did not take the time to read it… assuming it was his invitation to take the oral interaction test on January 29, we booked several sessions for his final sprint… then I did read the email and I realized he had been called for a job interview! Duh!… Okay, it was not what he was expecting but, at least, he knew he had not been forgotten in the maze of this absurd hiring process…

At the end of the interview, he was told that this permanent full time position had been turned into a six or nine month contract (depending on their budget) but that he would be called back in 2011 since he would have seniority!… For a while, he was tempted to withdraw from the competition since the position is far from being his dream job… yet, as an immigrant who came to Canada on his own will two years ago and who is only a permanent resident at this time, he knows he has to start somewhere… also, he wants to take the oral interaction interview so that they will have his language profile and he will be able to apply for more interesting and challenging positions in other Departments.

Of course, he thought this interview was stupid… he spent 13 years with the UN, going to third world countries in state of emergency, managing the aid budgets, taking care of logistic and leading teams of hundreds of workers. Therefore simulating a phone conversation so that they could assess his enunciation skills was kind of pitiful… without talking about their petty questions… But, he went through this interview gracefully…

To conclude, as I said before, I could never go through such a ridiculous process myself… And I truly admire individuals such as Krystal, Corey and many others I met in the course of my practice… I think it takes lots of courage… and je lève mon chapeau devant autant de détermination…

Maybe we all need to have a good laugh so that we can put things into perspective… a reader sent me a link to a video of Gory Bateson singing “Telle est la question”… I listened to it and I thought it was really funny! His pronunciation in French is so excruciating!… If you are in need of laughing instead of crying, watch this video here…

“Heureux les amoureux sur les montagnes russes”

Jacques Prévert

Congratulations Amelia!

Then, earlier today, I got a message from Dick in Toronto who got his C in both written expression and oral interaction…  He is now the proud owner of  CCC levels, consequently he should get the job position he applied for in Ottawa…

Congratulations Dick!

I now realize that my students’ rate of success at those absurd tests is very high!… Some would say that I am a real expert at coaching them… am I? I think so… yet I know how much effort and work my trainees put in their preparation and I tend to give them most of the credit for their success!…

In spite of the good news that come in on a regular basis, I am still quite disturbed with what I see and what I hear… The SLE testing process is certainly not improving!… The more the so-called panel of experts at the PPC brings change, deeper into confusion and irregularities they get in… It would not be that serious if their decisions were not affecting so many people’s future… who cares if some individuals are incompetent, as long as it stays among themselves?… If it were the case, I would not be so loud… actually I would probably take it with a grain a salt and I would make fun of this ridiculous process… Yet, here, we are talking about a system that is affecting thousands of people across Canada… therefore I cannot just sit here and observe without saying something.

Dick did not mention about the written test he took last week, therefore I cannot tell if he had the same one Corey had had in Montreal a few days earlier… but Dara sent me a message saying that here, in Ottawa, she had the same tests as before… meaning that the reading comprehension exam was way too easy and the written expression one was way too difficult: the exact same comments I had had from Melody, Candice, Edna and Krystal… and she took her tests yesterday!… Therefore the tests Corey took in Montreal almost two weeks ago were totally different from the ones that have been around for a couple months (written expression) and for years (reading comprehension).

Last week, one of my students came across some information concerning the reading comprehension test… apparently, it will be changed in April 2010… this is no news since this rumor has been circulating for almost a year now…

Yet, before implementing the new version, the PPC is running some kind of pilot project… they are inviting civil servants to volunteer and take the new test… if they ever get a higher level, they will be granted this new level… but if they get a lower level than the one they already have, they will not be penalized and they will maintain their current level… It makes sense!… I have no problems at all with pilot projects as long as they do not affect people’s future…

What happened in Montreal 10 days ago?… Why did the candidates take two tests that were absolutely not the ones that are given right now in the National Capital?… Corey told me that there were around 50 people being tested that day: all candidates for job positions within the PSC… in other words, none of them were civil servants… Would it be that the PPC used these people to test their new exams?… I thought about it and, unfortunately, I could not come up with another explanation… According to Corey, no one managed to finish the reading comprehension test in 90 minutes… and many did not even go beyond questions 40 or 45… since the cut off mark for the C level is 50, what does it tell you?… Many people there will be eliminated from the hiring process based on the fact that they failed this test!… Is it fair?…  On the other hand, is it fair that they took a very easy written expression version of the exam while many others here struggle and sweat to get their levels?… Are all these people the scapegoats of the PPC?…

It does not take a doctor in linguistics to state that this testing process is invalid… unless everyone is taking the same tests, the results do not reflect anything except the true incompetence of a bunch of  idiots who have no clue whatsoever about how to design tests that are assessing language abilities…

Anyways… before I get angrier, I will wrap up this post…  because, if there is one thing I cannot stand, it is unfairness… and this whole process is utterly wrong and unfair!…

“Taire ce qu’il ne faut pas dire et savoir supporter l’injustice, voilà des choses difficiles”

Chilon

Congratulations Krystal!

Now, let’s talk about the last changes in the SLE tests… Sometimes I believe I am now obsessive compulsive with those… well… probably not that bad, but still… I do feel that there is something utterly wrong… something I just cannot grasp… Is it because I am missing something here?… Or is it simply because there is nothing to understand?… I tend to vote for the latter…

You probably remember me writing that the written expression test had been modified in September… prior to that, although not easy, the test was quite balanced… people who needed a B usually got it (and even a higher level in some cases) and those who needed a C also got it, if not an exemption. Then, in September, there were drastic modifications made to that exam… I had enough students who took the test during this period to state that it was the most difficult version of it… ever! All of them barely made it… and they all confirmed that it was very difficult and totally different from the test samples they had been practicing with on Campus Direct (which only features four samples of  the 2007 80 question version of the written expression test… then considered the most difficult version of all!)…

Of course, having been informed of those changes early in September, I made sure that everyone who would have to take the written test would know and I pushed them even harder… This month I only had to prepare people for their oral interaction exams, except for Corey who took both his reading comprehension and written expression tests last Saturday… Therefore he was the first one to take the tests in October.

As soon as he went back home after his long day at CRA in Montreal, he gave me a call to update me… I have to say that I was stunned and I did not know what either think or say!

He told me that the first test he had taken that morning was the most difficult one and he had not been able to answer more than 59 questions. I thought he was talking about the written expression exam which, according to everyone, was a real nightmare… BUT NO! He was referring to the reading comprehension test… I could not believe it: I told him he was probably mistaking and he was talking about the written expression one… well… it was indeed the test that had been the easy one for years until now: reading comprehension!… I know there were discussions about changing this test too yet it had not materialized… apparently now it is reality though! He said that most people could hardly answer 40 or 45 answers… given that candidates to the level C need 50 correct answers, I guess many will be eliminated from that hiring process…

Then he told me that he had wrapped up the written expression test in 45 minutes, but he had chosen to stay and review his answers while everyone else had decided to leave… WHAT??? On top of it he said that, in paragraph C of the long questions, the differences in each version of the sentences were underlined… of course, it had saved him lots of time since he had not had to compare each one and look for those differences!…

All I can say is: «tant mieux pour lui!»… since he does need a C, taking an easier version of the written expression test was a bonus. I can hardly wait for hearing from Dick in Toronto who went for that test this morning… Dara will also be taking the two tests in Ottawa next Tuesday… it will be interesting to see if they had or will have the same tests that Corey had last week.

Later last weekend, I did have a chat with Krystal… I asked her if, in the version of the written expression test she had taken in late September, the differences were underlined… her answer was no of course!… Then she wrote: “It is so unfair!!! If I had taken the test a few days later, I would have had a C!!!”… and she was so right!

The so-called panel of experts at the PPC can make any changes they want, yet they should not modify the difficulty level of the tests… because it only invalidates them!… What will they need to open their eyes to reality and realize that they are experts of nothing when it comes to language skills assessment?… When will the Bureau de la vérificatrice générale make an audit of this non sense process?… Not only are we talking about a waste of tax payers’ money on something that is totally useless and invalid, but where are the candidates’ right to fairness and equity?… According to me, that right is violated big time!… and something will have to be done sooner or later… yet… I am not banking on it!… These people live in their own world and they are totally disconnected from reality… Anyone else could not sleep at night… but I am sure they do, convinced that they are the experts and they know what they are doing! It is pathetic, is it not?…

“L’aberration est de se croire objet unique et de faire de sa petitesse infinitésimale une puissance que jamais l’univers ne pourra reconnaître”

Yves Thériault

Congratulations Melody!

Then yesterday evening, when I connected with Michelle in Toronto, she broke the good news: earlier this week she had been called in (out of the blue) for the oral interaction test and she got the required B… she was not prepared for that at all! Actually, for the past 16 weeks, we have been doing French for the only sake of learning French (nor for tackling and acing the SLE tests) once a week… but, since we had been working rigourously on the concordance des temps and the conditional, I do believe it helped her a great deal for her presentation…  yet she deserves all the credit because we had never worked towards the exam together!

Congratulations Michelle!

And, when I got up this morning, I had an email from Denise in Toronto with  «Allo… mauvaise nouvelle » in the subject line!… For a second there, I stopped breathing!… But it was a prank!… She got her C haut-la-main!… Consequently I will be able to relax in Montreal during the long weekend because all the results are in!…  and even unexpected ones!

Congratulations Denise!

Besides those excellent news and four new trainees, everything is business as usual… this is why I am taking the opportunity of this recess in the PSC SLE testing process soap opera to write about my thoughts on online education sites… Once again, I will not point my finger at any of them in particular because a quick tour of their forums shows that a few (if not many) experience problems… and it seems that the larger they are the more bumps in the road they encounter!

What amazes me the most is to see that many do not have proper policies and the ensuing complaints are quite eloquent. Both community members (teachers and students) and staff spend lots of time and energy bleating about their problems (and some are very serious) yet the management of those sites refuses to do anything constructive. Of course it has a lot to do with their philosophy… some owners of such sites want them to be an open source for online education… therefore they open their doors to anyone who wishes to join the community without even elementary screening. Anyone can sign up to be a teacher: with no profile picture, no credentials, no background history, no teaching experience… and five minutes later they can create classes and use the platform to teach any subjects… it is an utopia to believe that anyone can teach only based upon the fact that they are good in some areas or they can speak a language… I think the boot camps here are a good example: most of their teachers never taught French but, because they do speak the language, those schools owners believe that they can!… Well… they cannot!… Actually if anyone could teach, there would not be any education programs in universities right?… Teaching is not an easy task and it implies a large part of responsibilities… language learning will not occur without the help of an expert… of course students will eventually get enough to get by and survive, but they will never become fluent in all areas (reading, writing and speaking).

Instead of trying and fixing what goes wrong by adopting professional policies and rules, they insist on marketing… according to them, if the teachers’ community does not succeed, it is only because they cannot market their services the right way… and, unfortunately, some excellent teachers with blind faith are convinced that it is their fault if they work hard for peanuts!… Well… marketing your services on a site where everything looks and, to some extent is, non professional will not help you build a reputation in your field of expertise. Also the type of clientele many sites attract is not the one who will buy you dinner at the end of the day!… Most of their students are inactive (not taking any classes) and those who do sign up for classes do not want to pay for learning… though I am not sure I would be willing to disburse money myself for being taught by someone with no experience, no credentials and, in some case, who is not even out of adolescence!… Anyone looking for serious and competent teachers will not join such communities (although there are some excellent and professional teachers/tutors there… yet they fall into the cracks of the system and their expertise cannot be recognized for its true value)…

I do not understand why so many community and staff members are so reluctant to implement screening policies… someone who is professional has nothing to hide: they have credentials and experience to show and it is only normal to be asked for this kind of stuff… when people contact me for training, they do ask me those questions… if they are going to invest in me for preparing them to take the PSC SLE exams, it is only natural that they want to make sure that they knocked on the right door and that they will not be disappointed…

If there were times when seeing so many teachers struggling to make a living out of online education services saddened me, I have to admit that I am less and less inclined to pity them… In many ways, they do nurture non professional sites by not taking action and staying there in spite of all the problems that systematically arise… and they also nurture the gurus’ egos and narcissic sides by providing them with a faithful blind audience. One would think that these teachers are somewhat internet savvy and that they could search for other avenues for their online teaching… because there are some sites that are truly professional… and finding them is actually at the tip of their fingers…

And for those who have some financial resources, it would be much more beneficial to start their own online education business… no one needs to be under the banner of a large site!… I think I do very well on my own and none of those sites would actually provide me with what I need to run my online teaching… I do have policies and rules which I abide by… Doing business either on the web or in the real world is the same… yet it appears that some people are still living in the dinosaur age… the internet is no longer something new that people are suspicious of… many transactions are done over the net and lots of professional services are also found there… and I think that consumers are keen and well educated (of course there will always be some gullible individuals): they can tell right away what site is professional and what site is not!… There is no need for a PHD to sort them out…

“Toute activité orientée selon l’éthique peut être subordonnée à deux maximes totalement différentes et irréductiblement opposées : l’éthique de responsabilité et l’éthique de conviction”

Max Weber