English Certifications for Students.

Hello everyone!

It's taken me a while to write this new entry, but it's been impossible as the first couple weeks have been hectic in my workpplace. In any case, I would like to share my thoughts with you on the topic of ESOL certifications for students.

As everybody knows, this type of certifications have existed for quite a long time, but at present there is such a wide variety that it's very difficult to choose the most appropriate one for your students. Cambridge, Trinity College, TOEFL, Oxford... There are so many possibilities that some students find it really diffficult to select one. This happes to me every year and nowadays even more due the the mobility that exists both at an academic and a professional level.

However, having in mind a clear idea of what your students want to do with it and with some research online, it's not a real problem to help them choose the certification that best suits them. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that Cambridge certificates are the most recognized one nearly all over the world, but competitors are on the rise and their standards are being accepted as well in many places.

Why do so many students take these examinations? To be honest, there is a demand at academic and professional levels and they even have pressure coming straightaway from their parents. Actually, I sometimes feel that these examinations have lost, in terms of social perspective, their real focus. They are designed to assess the level students have in English (or whatever language they're learning).

By this I mean the "need" for certificates is a truth which is affecting the primary purpose of taking these exams (I won't talk about the business of the institutions and the profit they make) and, ultimately, education and the pocess of learning themselves. And this poses some real problems.

First of all, I'd like to focus on learners who may not pass these examinations. Occasionally, I come across some who feel demotivated because they haven't succeeded in these exams, but whose level is even higher than the one they have to demonstrate in the exam (this rings a bell, doesn't it?). Then, it is very difficult to convince them that their level is "X" despite the examination they took says the contrary, which makes it extremely difficult for teachers to "recover" them or help them get over this issue. Moreover, when we're talking about young learners and teenagers, learners have the extra pressure of their families, which of course affects them at a personal level. Psychologically speaking, it is a real blow and teachers have to be very careful and act as counsellors so as to help students.

Second, external assessment is positive and I support it. We, as teachers, need to know if what we are doing is right and how to improve our teaching practice. And this is when these exams play an important role. Nevertheless, we might feel "trapped" as well, as we might receive pressure from the Administration, the board of an institution or the director of the school as well. In other words, we may need to show good statistics as they "indicate" whether we are good professionals or not.

This leads to the third point I want to mention: the fact that an amount of teachers (under pressure) change their teaching style and focus on examinations, not on learning. We've seen this happening in countries like the USA, where external assessment may have become, in my opinion, a burden rather than an advantage. In other words, teaching might be transformed into just a means of production to comply with official requirements.

I do believe in the positive aspects of external assessment, but the world we live in draws constant comparisons and analyses learners in terms of data and statistics, which shouldn't happen. I am aware businesses and the academic world use these as it is a quick way to differentiate (or set apart) candidates. However, is this the correct path? According to many companies, it isn't and that's the reason why they interview candidates in the second language they're looking for. And I agree with them. Some learners may have problems succeeding at these examinations even if their level is even higher: it isn't a problem related to their English skills, but a problem with the format of the examinations.

This is just some food for thought and we should all think about it to check if all these pressures I have been talking about are affecting the way we teach in a positive or negative manner.

Wish you all the best.

David.