Writing effective CLB-aligned comprehension items

Written by – Lisa Herrera, Consultant In a report completed for the Canadian government, Makosky (2008) indicated that, at the time of writing, exit test results from LINC programs across the country were “deemed to be subjective/situational and not comparable to any common standard,” with the result that “exit rating and feedback to newcomers may be inconsistent and the results not as portable as newcomers, instructors and program managers would like” (p. 2). Because of the lack of transparent, reliable outcomes, LINC’s funder, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (now Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada), determined that a consistent standard of exit

Updating the Essential Skills/CLB Comparative Framework

Background Relating Canadian Language Benchmarks to Essential Skills: A Comparative Framework (CF) was produced in 2005 for the purpose of bringing together the communicative abilities described in the Essential Skills (ES) and the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB). The CF was designed from the perspective of Essential Skills, with the focus on illustrating how CLB levels lined up with ES tasks and descriptors. The CF shows that the Essential Skills generally require language ability that aligns with Stage II and Stage III of the CLB scale. For this reason, the original CF document was used primarily by ESL practitioners working with learners