Bangkok--11 May--Mentor International
A new online English language test, Password, has just launched in Thailand. Password has been designed to discriminate effectively between CEFR levels A2 to B2 (broadly equivalent to IELTS bands 3.0 to 5.5) and has been developed for the growing number of international students enrolling on pathway programmes such as EAP, International Foundation, pre-Masters and pre-sessional courses before joining university programmes.
Password has been designed by CRELLA, a research centre of leading academics in the field of English language testing and assessment at the University of Bedfordshire and has been fully accredited by BALEAP (which has 75 UK university members). The University of the Arts London, the University of Reading and the University of Southampton have also been involved in the development of the test.
Password is delivered by accredited test centres around the world. The first test centres to open in Thailand is Mentor International. Password takes one hour to complete and test takers are given instantaneous test results and a certificate outlining which courses they are ready to take. The test costs 2200 baht.
Caroline Browne, Managing Director of English Language Testing Ltd, explained:
‘Until now, there has been no English language test targeted at international students preparing to undertake a preparation programme prior to joining university courses. There is anecdotal evidence of international students enrolling on pathway programmes which they are linguistically unable to handle which is frustrating for students (and their parents) who have to pay for additional English language classes before starting their pathway programme and may miss their expected course entry date. With the rapid growth of private sector providers working together with universities to increase the numbers of pathway students coming into the UK, there is a clear need for an appropriate test such as Password now.’
Professor Cyril Weir, Director of CRELLA added:
‘Password is a test of lexico-grammatical competence aimed at students who need to be placed on language improvement and other pathway courses of varying duration leading to an undergraduate or postgraduate university or college programme. The range of ability tested will cover the Common European Framework of Reference levels A2-B2. The test will focus solely on the candidate’s language knowledge i.e. their lexical and grammatical knowledge. It will cover academic and general vocabulary as appropriate to the CEFR A2-B2 levels. The focus in the grammar part of the placement test will be on those language structures students will have to master to cope with future academic literacy demands, again graded according to the three levels the test is concerned with. Language knowledge is seen as the necessary foundation for the development of the academic literacy that will be required in their future studies.’
List of Universities which accept Password Test:
Bournemouth University
Goldsmiths, University of London
Cardiff University
University of Teesside
Middlesex University
Queen Mary, University of London
Roehampton University
Saint Michael's College
Sheffield Hallam University
Telford College of Arts & Technology
University of Bangor
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
University of Bedfordshire
University of Chester
University of Cumbria
University of the Arts, London
University of Greenwich
University of Hull
University of Leeds
University of Nottingham
University Reading
University of Southampton
University of Stirling
University of Sunderland
University of Worcester
University of the West of Scotland
York College
Liverpool John Moores University
University of Bolton
University of Essex
Glossary of Acronyms:
BALEAP — The British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes
CEFR — Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
CRELLA — Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment
EAP — English for Academic Purposes
IELTS — International English Language Testing System
For more information, please contact at Mentor International Tel. 02-2555157-9 or [email protected]
For more information, please contact:
Miss Ratchadaporn Pichaisriswad, Marketing and Communications Manager
Mentor International
Tel. 0-2255-5157-9