Abstract
LSP performance assessment has become a special focus for language testers in recent years where experts have debated how testing tools and processes can be strengthened to more accurately and more validly assess professional communication at work. Suggestions to achieve this include ethnographic studies of the target language situation; authentic discourse analyses of the relevant texts; and subject matter experts (SMEs) being invited as informants when defining ‘successful’ communication at work. These are proposed as key steps in building LSP performance assessment validity (see for example Jacoby & McNamara: English for Specific Purposes 18(3):203–241, 1999). Language testing researchers have also suggested there may be some merit in distinguishing LSP performance as ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ (see also McNamara: Measuring Second Language Performance, 1996; Douglas: Language Testing 18(2):171–185, 2001) although clear lines of distinction between these have not yet been made in LSP assessment studies to date. In this article I propose a distinction between a ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ version of LSP performance assessment based on the empirical data collected over the last ten years of developing and embedding the Business Performance Language Assessment Scales (BUPLAS) into Asian call centres. A distinction that has been unclear to date in this area of research is whether a workplace LSP spoken assessment for work (meaning those assessment tasks that gauge employment entry levels as ‘predictive’ of work success) is the same as a workplace LSP spoken assessments at work (meaning those authentic assessments that gauge quality levels on-the-job as ‘observed’ success at work). For the Asian call centre industry this distinction is important because the purpose of recruitment (exclusion) is very different from the purpose of quality assurance (appraisal and coaching feedback). I argue that recruitment assessment with its attendant characteristics constitutes a ‘weak’ version of LSP performance assessment whilst its quality assurance counterpart constitutes a ‘strong’ version.
Highlights
The outsourced call centre industry in India and the Philippines considers excellent English language communication skills to be its core commodity for business success
Building on existing labellings of ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ LSP assessment, this study proposes clear definitions for each of these where Business Performance Language Assessment Scales (BUPLAS) is used for recruitment and quality assurance in the Asian call centre context
I have argued that BUPLAS (VA) for work reflects a ‘weak’ version of assessment tailored to recruitment needs, whilst BUPLAS (CA) at work reflects a ‘strong’ version of assessment tailored to the business quality assurance needs, a key one being coaching feedback
Summary
The outsourced call centre industry in India and the Philippines considers excellent English language communication skills to be its core commodity for business success. The distinctive characteristics of each revolve around the purpose and impact value, the location, the task-type, the rater and the number of the criteria (including the weightings ascribed to each, and level of elaboration) as tabulated below (see Table 3) It could be said, as suggested by McNamara 1996, that BUPLAS CA (quality assurance and coaching) reflects what he called the ‘real life’ context of the call centre in a stronger way than BUPLAS VA (recruitment) in that it uses ‘real life’ SMEs as assessors, it uses ‘real life’ tasks in the ‘real life’ context of work. Fragmented, and at times contradictory beliefs within the call centre worksite,
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