In intensive programmes, priorities must be established at the beginning. Courses must address what you need to know, not what you already know. Time is precious, and real improvement is necessary.

So, it's important that we test and analyse your English language skills before you choose any English Language Development Programme courses. This is how we do it.

Before planning any of the course content, we need to test and analyse your English language ability, and understand your strengths and weaknesses within four key sectors of language awareness:

After the test, your performance is measured against the performance of a natural speaker, and the results are presented graphically as your Personal Language Profile. The profile works like this:

The white perimeter shows all the numbered test questions that represent the language content for each of the four key sectors. Lower ability scores are placed nearer the centre, and higher ability scores are placed nearer the perimeter. Your test scores are joined together, making an irregular 'map' which the course administrator interprets to plan the course content and group students with similar strengths and weaknesses.

The profile shows two maps. The inner represents your starting ability and the outer represents your improved ability after two programme courses.

Having tested your personal English, we need to discuss your company's expectations for your professional English. The course objectives are defined with your executive and training managers, and desirable ability levels in ten key language areas are set on a proficiency level of 0-100.

Generally, within a specific work function, the acceptable ability level is about 40 and the professional ability level about 80. As an example, here is a chart for an engineer and, for comparison, a chart for a manager. You can see how the language skills levels for a manager, shown in dark pink, need to be higher, in all but one area, than those for an engineer.

ENGINEER		MANAGER

Your English Language Development Programme courses are then designed to provide the language skills you need for clear confident communication, personally, socially, and professionally.