Model Response Collection

Instructions

Purpose and Background

Many people around the world, whose native language is not English, need to use English for their work.
Companies around the world need ways to determine if the English of these non-native speakers is good
enough for the jobs they are expected to perform.

We create online tests that measure how well people speak English. There are two types of test
questions this project is collecting your responses on. The first of these is what we call a Retelling test
item (RTL) and the second is what we call an Oral Response test item (OR).

The purpose of the Retelling test item (RTL) is to allow us to measure how well the speaker can listen to
a brief story and then summarize it in their own words. Imagine that you listened to a quick version of
Little Red Riding Hood and then you need to record your own summary of the story in your own words
taking up to 30 seconds to respond. We analyze the recording to measure how many of the most
important points of the story did the speaker include in their response and how well did they express
themselves both in terms of the level of words and phrases they used and their pronunciation.

The purpose of the Oral Response test item (OR) is to allow us to measure how well the speaker can
deliver their own story or give their own opinions. To do this we present a written prompt such as, “Do
you feel being five minutes late for an appointment is acceptable? Tell us your reasons.” In the OR test
item, there is no particularly specific right answer. We are measuring the speaker’s ability to think
independently and create a narrative that is logical and appropriate to the written prompt using
between 30 seconds and one minute to record.

Spontaneous and Natural - Requirement

We use native speakers of English from the United States, such as yourselves to create our “model”
answers. That is the purpose of this project. You will be taking a series of our Mini-Tests so that you can
respond to these RTL’s and OR’s. You are being presented with the same questions we will eventually
use to test non-native speakers around the world. Your answers will be used to build the ideal models
that we use to score the non-native speaker’s responses against.

It is very important that you not “study up” or prepare in any way, because that defeats our purpose.
Your answers need to be completely spontaneous and natural. After you see or hear the prompt,
there is a certain amount of time you have to “think about” your response. This is the only preparation
you are allowed. You should not be taking any notes or writing anything down. Your response needs
to be completely ‘from your head’ as a natural reaction to what you are being asked to speak about.

We need you to use your relaxed and natural speech. Don’t think you are being judged like in any essay
competition or that you have to speak slowly or unnaturally for any reason. To build a proper model we
need you to speak as if you were talking to a friend. It is fine to take natural pauses in your response
because people continue to formulate what they say, as they are speaking. This is natural and normal
and we do not want you to try to eliminate it, in order to give a ‘perfect’ answer. We need answers that
are down to earth examples of real-life speech.

You Are Not Expected to Recall All of What you Hear

In the RTL passages you will listen to a detailed and sometimes lengthy story. Do not feel any stress
that you are not able to recall and retell all aspects of the story. We do not expect that of anyone.
What we are looking at is the ability to decide what are the important points of the story, and to
formulate a response that delivers those points.

How to Make Your Recordings

The quality of your audio is very important. For this reason, you must:

A) Use a Windows PC or Mac (no Chromebooks nor tablets permitted).

B) Use only the Chrome browser.

C) Use a USB Microphone headset.

D) Ensure that the boom tip of your microphone is two fingers away from and off to the side of your
mouth.

Once your computer and microphone are properly set up use the Chrome browser to get to this URL:

https://lbqa.languametrics.com/languatest

Once you are on this screen enter your login and password that will be provided to you separately.
Once logged in you will see a screen similar to this:

Total Tasks and Time

Each tile is the entry point to one of our Mini-Tests. You will be completing all of them. There are five
for RTL’s and five for OR’s. Each mini test has 5 different test items for you to do. The total of 50 items
can be completed in about an hour.
To Get Started

Click on the RTL 1-5 tile and you will see this entry screen:

You will then see these instructions for the MIcrophone Test. Please do as you are directed.

Moving through the test. Please follow the onscreen directions and pay attention to when count down
timers are indicated.
After the last item for each test you will see a message indicating you are finished. Please finalize the
test by clicking the Finish button.

Completing your first test

When you have completed your first test (RTL 1-5), please notify us so we can review that the audio is
fine (review takes immediately or within 24 hours). Once we have confirmed this, we will reply and
you can continue with the remaining 9 tests.

Completing all the Tests.

There are 5 RTL tests and 5 OR tests for you to complete. Please keep your own track of which ones you
have completed so you do not duplicate any.

If you need to stop or pause during a test, and come back to it later, that is okay. When you come back
to the test it will take you to the page where you left off so you can continue from there.

When you have completed all ten tests please notify us.

*Please note that the system detects cheating. This will make your entries invalid.