BEST-Plus 2.0 to Assess English Proficiency

BEST-Plus

BEST-Plus is the tool used by Project Rise ALC to assess prospective students English language oral communication skills and to measure gains by students in the program. Students that have mastered English oral communication are ready to work on reading and writing skills.

BEST-Plus is administered as a face-to-face interview using a series of real-life oral communication tasks, such as providing personal information, describing a situation and supporting an opinion. Conducted in a distraction free setting by an administrator that maintains an examines positive attitude, it has been shown to accurately assess skills placement with from six to twenty questions in less than half an hour.

BEST-Plus was developed by the Center for Applied Linquistics (CAL) and first published in 2003. It was based on the Basic English Skills Test (BEST), an oral interview created by CAL in the early 1980’s. It has become the standard for assessing the English language skills of adult learners where English is not their native language.

BEST Plus 2.0

The 2.0 version was released July 1, 2016 and is designed for use with nonnative speakers of English who need to use English to function in day-to-day life in the United States. It is adaptive in that questions progress based on a students responses, giving a good assessment of English language oral communication skills.