Canadian Academic English Language Assessment

Canadian Academic English Language Assessment or otherwise known as CAEL is a standardised assessment test to check the proficiency of a student in the English language in order to get admission in esteemed colleges at the undergraduate level in Canada.

The test is based on evaluating the performance of the student at the standard level. The test incorporates set of different languages in the form of activities. When a student applies for the rest, he/she goes through the reading article section, then is made to listen to lecturers, after that required to answer the questions and then also write some short stories on the particular subject. The biggest advantage of the test is that the students can take the test in any time that suits them in the year of application. 

The Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials incorporates the Canadian Academic English Language Assessment, and firmly believes it to be a very effective way to judge the English language proficiency of the applicants. So, the students who are planning to take admission in the colleges of Canada can apply for the test via online registration. 

Format of the Canadian Academic English Language Assessment Test

An applicant needs to get cleared in four sections in order to complete the test -

1)    Reading Articles

2)    Lecture Listening Session

3)    Writing the answers

4)    Speaking Test or Oral Test

Let us look at the detail of each section in the test of Canadian Academic English Language Assessment Test -

1)    Reading Articles -

The total duration of the Canadian Academic English Language Assessment Test is nearly two hours and fifteen minutes. In the first section of reading articles, a student had almost fifty minutes in the whole duration of the test. In this section, students are provided with two articles to read which is based on the topic in consideration with the other two latter sections of listening to lectures and then writing the answers. There are different parts where a student is tested in this particular section - Base for grasping the major theme of the article, deciphering particular useful information, relating the information with the ideation in the article, understanding and relating the vocabulary in the right way and context, organise the deciphered information. Arrange this information on the different chronological basis.

The text in the reading section is taken from various resources like books in the universities, journals, blog posts, magazine articles, newspaper, different case studies, documents of the government, newspaper write-ups, etc.

2) Lecture Listening Session

 In this section of listening to a lecture, a student is given nearly 20 minutes from the whole duration of test which is a total of two hours and fifteen minutes. A student is made to listen to a lecture which is prerecorded by the test authorities. The topic of the lecture is kept same as of in the reading article and writing the answer sections. In this section, the lecture is mainly from the first year class in the university and the same lecture is played during the test. A student must listen to the lecture, take notes of the important and relevant information regarding facts and figures at a different part of the lecture. The applicant is thereby tested on the basis of grasping the major theme of the article, deciphering particular useful information, relating the information with the ideation in the article, understanding and relating the vocabulary in the right way .In context, organize the deciphered information, arrange this information on different chronological basis, how they fill the blank and note down other relevant information.

3) Writing the Answer  section-

The student is nearby given forty-five minutes for the writing the answer section from the whole duration of two hours and fifteen minutes.     This section is kind of interesting as it requires students to write an essay on a particular topic and using the information he has acquired in the reading article and lecture listening section. The length of the essays in this section is around 1-2 pages. In the topic of the essay written by the student, the student has to agree either with the statement or disagree with the same; it can be said that it is the motion 'for' or 'against' the claim. The students needs to talk about the advantages and the disadvantages of the claim.

4) Speaking Section-

 This is the last section of the test, the student is given nearly twenty-five minutes out of the total two hours and fifteen minutes duration. This section incorporates nearly five tasks; this section analyses the student's way of representation of the academic part of the student. It includes using relevant information and making representation.