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Dear Reader,

Do you have one of those places you always walk, cycle or drive past on your way to work and never really stop by... although you always wish you did?

I have one¹ in particular:

This is one of many (200,000, including a few in Italy) Little Free Libraries spread across the world. The concept is simple, as apparent from their motto: you take a book, you share a book. I will say, though, maybe their motto should also include: you stop rushing around and give yourself two. blooming. minutes to rejoice in the glory that is community book sharing.

And so, after many months of never quite stopping but always glancing long enough to notice that books get constantly picked up and added (which restores my faith in humanity), this morning I did the unthinkable: I actually stopped to look at the books. Wild, right? And before you ask: no, I didn't take one or share one - that will obviously require months of agonising over what book² to share, but at least I stopped and kickstarted the thinking process.

Which, if you'll pardon my play on words, got me thinking about how much thinking I've been doing for the past few weeks: helping future English teachers develop their confidence while on teacher training programmes here in the UK has definitely energised me to bring new knowledge and exciting initiatives to LanguagEd!

So: I'm working on a bunch of new ideas to help you gain even more confidence as a teacher, and have a little more fun and a little less stress in your work, just like I've been doing with my teacher training courses here in the UK.

While I enjoy training teachers in the UK, you never forget your first love, and my first love is definitely Italian teachers. I've loved getting to know you over the past 6 years and I very much look forward to supporting you more closely. Speaking of which: if you're reading this and thinking "I always think about replying to her, but never do..." this is your sign from the universe: hit that "reply" button and tell me what you think (or how I can help you become the best teacher you can be!) 💌

Now, what do I have in store for you this week? Something that is probably extremely timely: how to test your students' levels without going mad with stress.

It's the start of the year after all: new classes, old classes that can't even remember the past simple³, and you, with your hopes and dreams and books, trying to tell the A1 from the C1 kids apart. Today, I will share with you 6 principles to test your students' levels with less stress, complete with examples and downloadable materials.

Got your coffee? Time to dive in ▶️

My level testing stories of love and hate

If we want to be a touch academic, level testing is part of what we call diagnostic testing. On an even higher level, it is part of your Needs Analysis for a class. Your Needs Analysis is the process of determining what should be included in a course based on the learners' needs, wants, musts (e.g. reaching the outcomes set out in the Indicazioni Nazionali) and starting levels.

But how do you go about testing (or re-testing after a 3 month summer break) their starting levels? In my fair amount of moons, I have done all sorts, including:

• relying on online placement tests done centrally, for example when I taught English in Italian universities. These were mostly about grammar, listening and reading, ça va sans dire;
• combining short written placement tests (grammar, vocabulary, reading) with back-to-back conversations in which I tried to gauge the speaking skills of 14 and 15 year olds on summer courses in the UK in 5 minutes;
• phoning over 100 people over the course of one week to level test their conversational skills because thankfully I was in charge of the placement testing for a whole company and could do what I wanted;
• doing absolutely nothing because MA students in the UK normally have IELTS at a B2 level or higher.

Now, in all of these experiences, one principle stood out to me: less is more. Finding the right tool for the right need is the key to saving yourself time and stress. Speaking of which:

1. Don't reinvent the wheel

Think of yourself as a scientist: what data already exist on your students? Can you check their grades from last year or your notes if you already had that class? Can you get information from their former teacher? Even a simple activity such as reviewing their summer homework will begin to give you valuable data. Just make sure that harness it to the fullest: for example, while reviewing their summer homework, remember to focus on the level they appear to have and make notes about different students.

2. Clarify your goals before you start

Level testing is a kind of diagnostic testing, and as such, the rules of assessment remain paramount: a good quality test needs to be valid. For it to be valid, it needs to test exactly what it is supposed to test - no more, no less. So, here are some questions worth pondering before you start to save you time down the line:

• what exactly do you need to test? Will you test the same things in a vocational school as you would in a liceo or in a first year scuola media?
• what are you planning to teach/do you normally teach at this level? Practical considerations need to go hand in hand with level testing: if you're not planning on doing much speaking, there's little point testing their speaking.
• what things will they need to know or be able to do by the end of the year? For example, if they need to be able to create a marketing plan in English, testing their existing knowledge and skills in that area might be a start.

3. Know what different levels look like

The CEFR isn't perfect, but it is the bread and butter of 99% of us - so much so that instinctively, many of us can tell what a B1 student looks like as opposed to an A1 or a C2 student⁴. But if you're doing your own level testing, it can be hard to grade students based on specific CEFR levels, so: here is how the 6 levels broadly differ 👇

4. Be realistic (and kind to yourself)

In an ideal world, we would work individually with students to pinpoint exactly whether they're at a B1 or a B1+ level. Sure. But in real life, I would suggest that is not only impossible but also unadvisable. Be realistic: once you have established what needs to go in your level test, what could be left out? If it's data you're going to use, keep it; if it's data you won't use to establish what to teach, out it goes.

​Take this test, for example: do you need all of the 60 grammar questions?

​Or this test (sign up required, but it's free and interesting): do you need to test listening or are you okay leaving it for later because, for example, it will only be a focus later in the year?

Conversely, does a test like this one give you the information you need? Or does it try to do a little bit of everything (so you could argue it has range) but not quite thoroughly enough, so there isn't a lot of depth? This will impact the quality of the data you collect - and since you're the one doing the marking, you at least need your final data to be valuable.

5. Leverage existing materials

You can find all manners of placement tests online and in coursebooks. I would still caution that a level test for the sake of level testing is at best pointless, but even so, if you can find your objectives and determine what stays and what goes, you can find some good materials out there.

As usual, I've done the scoping work for you, so you can save some time. Here are some potentially good examples - login may be required but they are all free of charge:

• ​British Council level test: 30 questions to complete in 20 minutes. Mainly focused on grammar with a touch of vocabulary, if that's your jam.
• ​Cambridge English test: I've used this one before because it's just so easy. 25 questions, no time limit, most of the focus is on grammar and vocabulary but with a good range, and some questions on general communication. There is also, helpfully, a Young Learners version that might work better for scuola media.
• ​LinguaHouse speaking test: with questions graded by CEFR level. I would recommend using these in small groups or pairs, and walking around monitoring answers.
• ​Rubric-free placement test: you will find a downloadable speaking placement test in this interesting article with some eye-opening points about level testing.

6. Remember the limitations (and be extra kind to yourself)

Level testing can provide some good initial data; however, it can't provide the full picture. For that to emerge, you will have to wait a few weeks and months - and that's okay. After all, as either Albert Einstein or possibly sociologist William Bruce Cameron (it's disputed, sorry) said:

Indeed, I'm sure you've had students who did brilliantly at grammar tests but failed to string together a sentence in conversation, and conversely, students who repeatedly failed accuracy-based tests but actually did okay when you went on that trip abroad. Level tests also won't often show our students' collaborative, leadership, reflective or critical thinking skills - which can be far more important than their knowledge of the past simple.

And on the other hand, could we assess things like students' learning styles? Yes, yes we could, and decades of learning style tests are a testament to this. But we don't, not anymore, because it would be worthless information. So, choose a test, tailor it a little for your needs, and then keep calm and carry on: the real level emerges after a little while, and that's okay!

And that's it for today: I hope you found something interesting in this newsletter. Speaking of which: I keep hearing from you that you like learning some new vocabulary from this newsletter. Which is great news because it's much easier and more memorable to learn vocabulary in a context, such as this, than in isolation, in a "word of the day" kind of style. So I thought: why don't we pool all this learning, so you never forget? After all, why should our students be the only ones who benefit from our meticulous vocabulary teaching work? So, I've created a Padlet where everyone will be able to share any words, idioms or weird expressions they get from the newsletter each Sunday. That way, it's all collected there and you can consult it whenever you like!

Add your favourite words to the Padlet

And with that, it really is time to say goodbye for now and wish you a wonderful Sunday with your loved ones.

Take care, dear teacher ✨

¹ OK, to be honest I have a few, but somehow I think not stopping at any of the 1847593 bakeries, pubs and Greek food takeaways on the way to my work is the right call... right?

² Unrelated note, but the other day I found that this book apparently made the cut among the exactly 17 books in Italian in the "world languages" section of my local library:

And it might be a wild guess, but I sense this was probably donated by someone with interests akin to my own.

³ Bless them, (t)rap music is a big fan of the present simple anyway...

⁴ In case you were wondering, this is my mental picture of C2 students:

P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: Some people might say "a word from our sponsors", but I actually really like these guys' work. And for once in my life on this earth, I don't have to read a bunch of AI slop. Have a quick look:

✨Cool things I heard this week

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