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BEST Plus, developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), is an individually administered face-to-face scripted interview designed to assess oral English language proficiency of adult English language learners who need to use English to function in day-to-day life in the United States. BEST Plus begins with warm-up items intended to make the examinee feel comfortable conversing with the test administrator. The examinees are then administered questions drawn from several thematic sets of questions.
BEST Plus uses a holistic assessment method that evaluates the overall quality of the response. Each examinee response is scored in three categories: Listening Comprehension, Language Complexity, and Communication. Each scoring category allows for a range of scores according to the quality of the examinee’s response. For example, a response may be simple but hard to understand, or simple and easy to understand. It may be complex and hard to understand, or complex and easy to understand. The scoring categories and response qualities used for BEST Plus have been adapted from the work of researchers who study second language acquisition.
BEST Plus is not correlated to any textbooks or curricula. As an adaptive assessment of oral proficiency, there is really no way to “teach to” BEST Plus. However, teachers should consider the different content areas that BEST Plus questions are drawn from as well as the different question types. The content areas are representative of typical life skills content covered in many adult ESL textbooks and curricula. The different question types, ranging from easier to more difficult, allow students of any proficiency level to demonstrate their ability to converse in English – even at the lowest levels. All of the content areas and question types in BEST Plus can be found in conversations that native and non-native English-speaking adults would likely encounter while speaking English in non-instructional settings such as at the workplace or in the community.
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BEST Plus scores are aligned with SPL descriptors, which range from 0 to 10. Adults being served in federally funded adult ESL programs usually have between an SPL 0 and 6 in oral communication. Being familiar with these descriptors will help teachers understand their students’ abilities and target their instruction appropriately.
When thinking about how to align classroom instruction with standardized assessment, teachers should consider what students need to know and be able to, what is being measured by the test, what content areas are covered, what the test items are like, how the test scores are interpreted, and what preparation is needed. For example, teachers in adult education programs that use BEST Plus should consider the following:
Answer conversational questions on a variety of life skills topics that adults need to be able to communicate orally in English
A performance-based test of oral language proficiency in English.
Students’ oral English proficiency levels.
Personal identification, Health, Family/parenting, Consumerism, Housing, Recreation/entertainment, Getting a job, On the job, Civics, Community services, Transportation/directions, Weather/seasons, Education
A variety of questions appropriate for different proficiency levels: Photo description, Entry item, Yes/no, Choice, Personal expansion, General expansion, Elaboration
Each item is scored on three holistic scales: listening comprehension, language complexity, and communication.
BEST Plus scores are aligned with Student Performance Levels (SPLs) and can also be interpreted within the six educational functioning levels of the National Reporting System for Adult Education.
The best way to prepare students for BEST Plus is to give them many opportunities to practice content-rich, conversational English both inside and outside of the classroom. See the Instruction button for specific ideas in teaching speaking and listening.