Ordinate Corp., a subsidiary of Harcourt Assessment, is offering what it says is the world's only technology-enabled, spoken-language proficiency test. Ordinate says its test uses speech recognition technology to assess the listening and speaking skills of non-native English speakers.

The company's Spoken English Test (SET) is designed to analyze speech components from native and non-native speakers of English. The system locates and evaluates relevant segments, syllables, and phrases in speech. It then uses statistical modeling techniques to score the spoken performance.

The test is available in five- and 10-minute English language versions. It also is available in a junior English language version for children. It is delivered over the phone and scored by computer. The test-taker reportedly can view his or her score online within minutes of having completed the examination.

Independent studies have shown that SET exams are more objective and reliable than the current tests rated by humans, including one-on-one oral proficiency interviews, Ordinate president and test developer Jared Bernstein said. "If I have you evaluate a non-native speaker of English, you'll give that person a score, say a 4.1. A second human rater does an evaluation and gives that person a 5.4, a third gives that person a seven, et cetera," Bernstein said.

"As you collect ... information from more and more independent raters rating someone's English, a median emerges. If I take the human rater median scores, the machine [score] has been shown to be a better estimate of the central tendency of the human rater."

Though the technology also has implications for use in foreign-language courses, such as French or Spanish, Bernstein cautioned that Ordinate has no immediate plans to offer such assessments to students. "It's under study," he said. "But that's as far as it goes at this point." Using criteria developed by linguists, the SET reportedly assesses English proficiency, fluency, and pronunciation. An overall score ranging from 20 to 80 is gleaned from the combined average of each of the testing categories. These categories are sentence mastery, vocabulary, fluency, and pronunciation.

Part A of the demonstration test available on the company's web site asks the examinee to read aloud from a list of 12 sentences. If the testing voice orders the examinee to read sentence number 12, then the examinee would read aloud, "I just wish she could get along better with their cat." Part B asks the examinee to repeat unrelated sentences in the time given. "His car is being repaired" and "War broke out" were among them. Part C is a short-answer format. "How many sides does a triangle have?" Three. "What season comes before spring?" Winter. "Does a tree usually have fewer trunks or branches?" Trunks. "Kim's jewelry business is very lucrative. Does it make money or lose money?" It made money.

Part D, sentence building, builds upon comprehension with syntax. The examinee is asked to rearrange a series of subjects, verbs, and objects into a logical sentence. For instance, "we didn't / the movie / enjoy" becomes "we didn't enjoy the movie"; "to wait here / we didn't want / very long" becomes "we didn't want to wait here very long"; and so on.