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In today’s interconnected world, effective communication in English is more crucial than ever. As educators and language learners seek to measure and improve English proficiency, a resource like the Global Scale of English (GSE) offers a valuable framework for assessment. This blog post will explore how the GSE can be used to assess listening skills, providing insights into how it also helps tailor instruction and support language development.

For listening skills, the GSE focuses on how well learners can understand spoken English in different contexts. It assesses comprehension at varying levels of complexity:

Understanding simple information: At lower levels, learners are expected to understand basic information, such as simple instructions or everyday topics. The GSE provides learning objectives for how well learners can grasp essential details.

Understanding main ideas: As proficiency grows, learners should be able to identify main ideas and key points in more complex spoken texts, such as conversations and broadcasts. The GSE outlines how well learners can extract important information from various sources.

Understanding detailed information: At advanced levels, learners are expected to comprehend detailed and nuanced information, including implicit meaning and speaker intent. The GSE describes the level of detail and depth of understanding required at these stages.

The GSE also shows how students engage in different operations of listening, from global comprehension, recognizing information and identifying specific information to extracting information. By taking this into account, teachers can monitor students’ progress and assess their listening skills. An example will show this in action.

Let’s consider a level, say GSE 30-35 (equivalent to low A2 on the CEFR) and focus on how students process information. When checking a listening activity, rather than simply focusing on whether the answers are correct or incorrect, we can analyze our learners using the GSE and see what progress they are making and what we need to do as teachers to help them move on. Heres how:

Leonor Corradi, MA is an experienced teacher of English and teacher trainer. As such, Leonor has��conducted workshops and delivered talks on best-practice teaching to ensure that learning really happens. The Global Scale of English has become a unique resource that clearly addresses the relationship between teaching and learning.

Are you an experienced teacher looking for a tool to boost your teaching effectiveness? Or perhaps you're a novice educator seeking new methods for teaching English. Whatever the case may be, the '' course is your ultimate guide to mastering teaching with the Global Scale of English (GSE).

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin.

This quote encapsulates the crux of the 'Teaching with the GSE' course. A comprehensive professional development program designed to bridge the gap between teaching and learning.

Many teachers are familiar with various scales, particularly the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). However, few may have delved deeply into its intricacies, as its connection to everyday teaching might seem somewhat remote. Each level of the CEFR provides a snapshot of learners' capabilities, while teachers are responsible for crafting the narrative that illustrates how students progress from one level to another. In this metaphor, the Global Scale of English (GSE) serves as a valuable script that educators can utilize to facilitate their students' progress.

About the 'Teaching with the GSE' course

The 'Teaching with the GSE' course offers educators a treasure trove of tools to assist learners in their language learning journey. Here is a sneak peek of what you can expect from the course.

The GSE and the CEFR

The course starts with an insightful introduction to the GSE and the GSE Toolkit. By the end of this section, you'll understand the relationship and distinctions between the GSE and CEFR.

Learning Objectives

The training course addresses the role of learning objectives in teaching and learning. It also helps teachers taking the course set learning objectives. They will, in turn, help their learners set their own learning objectives. Setting language learning objectives often results in students being much more involved and motivated to learn and make progress.

The GSE Toolkit

The GSE Toolkit is an incredible resource for teachers, learners, department heads and coordinators. The course shows how user-friendly it is and how it helps users personalize their own goals and monitor them.

Course materials alignment to GSE

The GSE is a general scale in that it is not course-based and can be used with materials of all sorts. However, those materials aligned to the GSE offer different resources that can help teachers in different areas: planning, teaching, assessing, monitoring learners progress, among others.

Improving your professional development and student's classroom experience

Teachers worldwide have already started using the GSE. This course will help them see how to use it for more effective teaching, lesson planning, assessment, and curriculum design. They will become aware of how many great, unforgettable experiences they can create together with their learners.

Reading time: 4.5 minutes

Teaching is an art form that thrives on adaptation and personalization. When dealing with language instruction, ensuring that each student is engaged and effectively learning is of paramount importance. In my experience as a teacher, I have learned that we should always teach our students rather than the coursebook or the syllabus. I think most teachers would agree with this.

However, it may be challenging to adapt activities to cater to our learners’ needs. What does personalizing an activity mean? How can we make it more accessible to our English learners? One would think that making the answers more obvious can be the way to go. Yet, this does not really help students learn and make progress. That's where the Global Scale of English (GSE) comes in as a valuable tool for personalizing teaching activities.

The essence of personalized learning

Personalizing an activity in language teaching does not simply mean making the responses more obvious. Instead, it's about tailoring the exercise to elevate the student's learning experience and potential for progress. This demands an insightful approach during the preparation phase of any given lesson.

Utilizing the GSE in language teaching

Let’s analyze this listening activity at A2 level for a group of adults:

Audio script example:

Emma: Are you working on the Media project?

Vic: Yes. I may start working on a new project in a couple of weeks, but for now I’m writing the objectives for Media. Why?

Emma: Well, Adam wants to see the photos for the project. He needs them for the ads.

Vic: Oh, they’ll be ready next week. OK?

Emma: Awesome! Thanks. Any plans for the weekend?

Vic: Well, I have to work on Saturday. We’re taking the Media pictures in the morning, but we’re just going to have fun at the beach in the afternoon.

Emma: Nice!

Vic: What about you? What are you doing this weekend?

Emma: I’m going to a concert on Sunday at 3 pm.

Vic: That sounds fun!

Listen and write T (true) or F (false)

1. Vic is working on a new project.

2.�� Vic is working on Saturday morning.

3. Emma is going to a concert on Sunday evening.

GSE Descriptors

Upon dissecting this example by the GSE descriptors, we can identify the learning objectives that align with an A2 level:

• Can identify simple information in a short video, provided that the visual supports this information and the delivery is slow and clear. (GSE 30)

• Can identify basic factual information in short, simple dialogues or narratives on familiar everyday topics, if spoken slowly and clearly. (GSE 32)

• Can understand the main information in short, simple dialogues about familiar activities, if spoken slowly and clearly.��(GSE 33)

• Can identify key information (e.g., places, times) from short audio recordings if spoken slowly and clearly. (GSE 33)

We know that learners should be given a global task first for overall listening, which is also one of the communicative objectives in the Global Scale of English: