Friday, September 17, 2010

Confessions, Confessions

Confessions from an ELF in Brazzaville
(an e-mail sent to my RELO on September 16, 2010)

Here is a confession from an ELF in Brazzaville regarding testing.


I had prepared a two-page questionnaire in advance to give to the journalists, and it was ready, but I had about 1 hour to find and/or make up a test. I was under the impression we would use a test that is already in place for the Saturday English program, but the ministry gave us less than one day's notice about the testing time and place. I arrived at the embassy at 9 a.m. the morning of the test, which was scheduled for 11 a.m., and had nothing prepared.


My co-worker couldn't find the Saturday English program test, and I was testing over 100 people, so I didn't want to break the budget on photocopying. I call the test I threw together- my less than one hour to prepare test- how reliable can it be? We arrived at the test site 45 minutes late. Such is life. I wish I would have had time to create or find a better test.


I feel relieved after my confession. Thanks for listening.


My RELO's Response


Hahaha. You are on the front lines of English teaching in Africa. It doesn't get any better than this.


Note on Professionalism: I did use various informal assessments in addition to the- how reliable can it be- test to assess the students' levels of English.



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