[ti:New English Assessment as Part of PISA Study] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Cambridge University Press and Assessment [00:03.40]is partnering with the Organization [00:05.72]for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [00:09.04]on a new English language assessment. [00:14.56]The goal of the new assessment is to improve understanding [00:18.48]of how English is taught and learned as a foreign language. [00:24.08]The assessment will be a part of the OECD's Program [00:27.52]for International Student Assessment, called PISA. [00:31.12]PISA is a worldwide study every three years [00:35.24]that measures student performance in math, [00:37.92]science and reading in the native language. [00:41.20]About 80 countries take part in the study. [00:45.96]PISA will be adding a foreign language assessment [00:48.76]in 2025 as part of the study. [00:52.08]So far, English is the only foreign language [00:55.72]that will be used in the assessment. [00:59.16]"It's a fact that English is the language of communication of study, [01:03.36]of work, spoken by billions of people," Hanan Khalifa told VOA. [01:09.52]Khalifa is a language learning and teaching expert with Cambridge, [01:14.76]and one of the leading experts on the PISA foreign language assessment. [01:20.16]"So it wasn't surprising to use English [01:23.04]as a foreign language to start with," she said. [01:27.24]Khalifa calls the new test "groundbreaking." [01:30.32]She said large studies of English language teaching [01:34.48]and learning have been limited. [01:36.72]There was a study in the 1970s [01:39.16]by the University of Gothenburg in Sweden [01:41.92]looking at English as a foreign language. [01:45.00]And Cambridge was involved in a 2000s study [01:48.52]among some European Union countries [01:51.12]that assessed teaching and learning foreign languages. [01:55.40]Cambridge has tested English teaching [01:57.84]and learning in individual countries, [02:00.52]but never on a worldwide level. [02:04.76]The PISA assessment administered [02:06.84]"all over the world with participating countries [02:09.76]gives us really, really rich data," Khalifa said. [02:14.24]Until now there has not been a "reliable ... data source [02:17.72]about the levels of the abilities of people [02:20.48]who would speak English." [02:23.20]She said the data will help countries [02:25.60]make decisions about how to use resources. [02:29.04]Without good data it can be hard to know [02:31.68]whether countries should center their efforts [02:34.24]on developing study programs, training teachers, [02:38.48]or introducing students to the language earlier, she said. [02:43.88]The PISA study is only given out to 15-year-old students [02:47.84]who attend the school system. [02:49.92]The test will center on assessing real-world, [02:53.44]everyday English communication. [02:56.96]Khalifa said the test "is not about whether your grammar is accurate [03:01.32]and whether your vocabulary is spot on." [03:04.72]She added: "It's about whether your message [03:07.56]has actually been communicated to the other side or not." [03:12.40]The test will be entirely online and through a computer. [03:16.60]Students will be assessed based on their English language ability. [03:20.92]Students will speak into microphones for the spoken parts of the test. [03:27.16]OECD piloted the assessment in five countries in 2021, [03:32.04]and Khalifa said it was a success. [03:36.48]Catalina Covacevich is with OECD [03:40.04]and was involved with the pilot program. [03:43.84]She said in a statement that "we were concerned [03:46.88]that students with low levels of speaking skills [03:49.88]may have found the pilot stressful, but one school enjoyed it so much, [03:54.96]they clapped after the speaking assessment." [03:58.32]Khalifa said the test is not meant to trick students or be overly difficult. [04:04.40]"We try to minimize the anxiety as much as possible," she said. [04:09.72]But the countries involved take the results seriously. [04:13.36]Khalifa said that countries that have been helped by PISA [04:17.48]have changed their education policies. [04:20.28]Some countries have decided to hire more teachers [04:23.48]or introduce foreign languages at a younger age, she said. [04:28.28]"And that is one of the key reasons why we partnered [04:31.28]with OECD," Khalifa said. [04:33.92]"It is about that influence of PISA." [04:36.88]I'm Dan Novak. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM