--- Forwarded Message from Mary Ball <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 08:06:20 -0500 (EST)
>From: Mary Ball <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Praxis tests

Dear LLTIers,
        I'd like some feedback from those of you out there who are using
your language center to give the ETS foreign language Praxis tests.  For
the uninitiated, the Praxis tests are content-area tests that your state
may require of students seeking a K-12 teaching certificate or license.
Ohio,for example, requires aspiring FL teachers to take and pass the
French/Spanish/German/Italian content knowledge test and a second
production skills test.  (There's a third test, but it's not required in
Ohio.)  The skills production test includes speaking and writing. The
speaking part is clearly intended to be administered in a traditional
audiotape lab with a console: testing tape with aural questions to be
played from the console, student tapes for recording their answers on
cassetts that are sent in to ETS.
        We used to have such a lab, but got rid of the console when we
switched two years ago to a digital CAN8 lab. We kept the Sony tape
decks, however, so students can record on audiotape in the lab. Our Ed
Dept people do not understand the difference in the capabilities, and are
anxious for us to continue offering the test.  We _could_ pursue
digitizing rights with ETS and deliver the "console" part by computer, and
have students record their answers on tape.  Or not.
        If you are administering the Praxis, what equipment are you using?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people in Ohio or adjacent
areas, but you Hawai'ians, Icelanders and others, please also respond.

Mary Ball
Director, Language Lab
Ashland University
Ashland, OH  44805
tel (419) 289-5945
fax (419) 289-5791
[log in to unmask]