Real-Life Decision Making
Language assessors must be superb decision-makers because they have to make some far-reaching choices in all stages of an assessment. "First of all, we make decisions even prior to the assessment," says Adriana Parau. She is a language assessor. "There are eligibility criteria for assessments, and there are certain situations in which [clients] can or cannot be assessed."
And an actual assessment reflects a number of small decisions. For instance, language assessors must decide on the type of questions that they think will give them the best results. And they must quickly decide how to follow up a question.
Also, during the referral process, language assessors recommend a language program that fits their clients' needs. Language assessors make that decision along with their clients. And the consequences of error can be quite significant.
A wrong recommendation will waste the clients' time and money, says Parau. More importantly, it may undermine their clients' confidence and embarrass them if they are placed in a program in which they cannot keep up, she says. "So it is very important to make the right decision," she says. "It is not somebody else's fate, but it is the start on a road."
You are a language assessor. You just completed an assessment of a new client. He is a young computer scientist. His assessment shows that he has good reading and writing skills, but he struggles with spoken English.
The general rule is to place clients in programs according to their language needs. So in this case, the client should go into a lower-level class where he can improve his conversation skills. But is that the right thing to do? After all, this person has a university degree, appears highly motivated and writes English well. He should be able to learn conversation skills quickly.
What do you do?