Why CEPA?
CEPA is the only criterion-referenced English communicative proficiency assessment that uses situationally and interactionally authentic tasks to elicit test takers’ use of English in real-life workplace contexts.
- Accurate knowledge of a language (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.) is not sufficient on its own to use that language for real-life communicative functions. That is, knowledge of a language becomes meaningful when it is used accurately and appropriately for real-life communication within context.
- To use a language as a means of communication, it should be used in context (i.e., not in a discrete-point fashion) and in an integrated manner appropriate to real-life communicative functions.
- Language use consists not only of linguistic competence but also encompasses sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and intercultural communicative competencies.
- Proficiency test results should assess candidates’ language ability in the target domain based on established proficiency guidelines as criteria, independently of other candidates’ performance on the test.
- Finally, proficiency test results should go beyond a single abstract score and provide candidates with individualized feedback on what they can and cannot do with the language. This should, in turn, inform a methodology for improving their language proficiency.
