Interview
Testing the world Yerrie Kim, Executive Director, EF Education First What was the thinking behind the EF Standard English Test (EFSET), launched last year? EF teaches English to all types of learners all over the world, both online and offline. All of these learners need to know what their English level is. Until the EFSET, there was no cost-effective testing solution available to all learners, regardless of their level, geographical location or financial means. The costs associated with traditional tests – often taken in order to get certified – are prohibitive for many individuals and for institutions like schools that can’t afford the cost of certification tests at scale.With EF’s history and expertise, we saw a niche here that we could fill. Philip Hult first had the idea about 10-15 years ago, and we started actively researching and devoting resources to the project about four or five years ago. We had three key criteria for this project when we started: the test had to be built to the same high standards as certification exams, it had to be cutting edge in terms of the technology behind it, and it also needed to be free and easily accessible online in order to reach as many of the approximately 1.7 billion English learners as possible. What drives this project? We try to look at everything from the learner’s perspective. The starting point was, of course, that we identified this need for easily accessible, free testing of English levels online. Existing tests simply didn’t meet this need – the best analogy I can think of is that the testing industry was “trying to kill a fly with a canon.” We believe that for the vast majority of learners, the EFSET is a better, more suitable tool. It’s also centered on the learner in the sense that it is flexible. We know that no two English learners’ needs are the same, so the EFSET was developed to be useful both for advanced learners and beginners. For advanced learners who are looking to get certified and want to test themselves very reliably – we have the longer EFSET Plus. For beginners who are not ready to test their level with an expensive, certification test but still want accurate measurements, we have the regular EFSET.
What are some of the biggest opportunities going forward? We’re really excited about our partnership with LinkedIn – being able to showcase your EFSET score in one simple click on your LinkedIn profile is very convenient, and we know that people want to show off their skills in this way. This reflects a new way of thinking about certification, and I find this really exciting. There’s also scope to develop the online side of the EFSET. It’s particularly fascinating for us as a company because the internet is both a learning and an assessment medium for us. EF is really well positioned to pioneer the marriage of English learning with assessment online, and to provide more tailored and cost-effective education solutions. And some of the biggest challenges? It’s a challenge to make sure that the customer journey is truly seamless and that the tech stays in the background, as it should. It’s a service, so people expect it to work flawlessly. We’re always tweaking and improving it, of course, while focusing on the quality of the overall experience. What will language testing look like in 2020? Our goal and hope is for the EFSET to be a household name by 2020. We want to build a global community of people that use it in dialogue with us, so that we can keep learning and improving the test on a global scale. We also want the test to have a real effect on the English language learning experience and to inform research in the field. In other words, we want to make a real mark on the industry and help move it forward. We’re seeing some early signs of this already – I recently got an email from an Indian non-profit that wants to test 10,000 students yearly. Established certification tests are simply too expensive for them, but the EFSET meets their needs perfectly! www.efset.org
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