Multilingual learners face the unique challenge of mastering English while keeping pace with academic expectations. As an educator or administrator, you’re focused on helping these learners meet both language and academic benchmarks. To make sure your learners succeed in achieving their goals, you need to answer three critical questions:
- What is my learner’s current English proficiency level?
- Is my learner progressing?
- Where should I focus to help them achieve their language goals?
To understand your learner’s current skills and future goals, you need a tool that can track progress and customize curriculum to meet their needs. The Pearson Global Scale of English (GSE) offers a research-backed global standard that monitors granular progress and adapts to learners’ goals.
What is the Global Scale of English (GSE)?
Developed by Pearson through extensive research with over 6,000 educators worldwide, the GSE provides a practical way to understand what learners can do at each proficiency level. By measuring language skills across a 10–90 scale, it extends common language frameworks to deliver more detailed insights into four key areas of English mastery: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
The solution has key features that empower you and your multilingual leaners:
- Progress tracking provides incremental insights to motivate and build confidence.
- Easy to use for learners of all ages, from pre-primary to adults.
- Adaptable for academic, professional, and general English language goals.
- Provides a single, unified scale that connects Pearson’s courses, assessments, and certifications.
A comprehensive framework
Your learners need support on every level of their English language learning journey. Whether you’re an instructor or trainer, you can leverage assessment tools, as well as supporting curriculum, to help your learners progress toward English mastery.
The GSE is incorporated into two measurement tools:
- The Scale: A precise proficiency scale aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), providing a common language for tracking learner progress.
- Learning Objectives: Over 1,800 “can-do” statements describe what learners can achieve at each stage, tailored to different audiences such as Young Learners (ages 6–14), Academic Learners, and Professionals.
If you are training as well as assessing, Pearson offers aligned resources that learners can use on their English learning journey:
- Course Materials: GSE-aligned digital and print resources ensure consistent, measurable lessons that meet learners’ needs at every stage.
- Assessments: A full suite of assessments, from placement tests to certifications, provide the data needed to guide learning and measure progress.
Adapting to state ELD frameworks
The Global Scale of English (GSE) aligns with state-specific English Language Development (ELD) frameworks, including WIDA and other standards adopted across the U.S. Any state can integrate Pearson’s resources to enhance instruction and track progress with precision.
You can take full advantage of:
- Progress tracking: The GSE’s detailed 10–90 scale complements a wide range of ELD standards by offering detailed insights. This helps you monitor growth and identify skill gaps no matter which framework you follow.
- Tailored instructional support: By mapping GSE learning objectives to WIDA and other state-specific standards, you gain a clear roadmap for bridging gaps and guiding learners toward their goals.
- Seamless curriculum integration: You can easily integrate the GSE into WIDA-aligned curricula and other state frameworks, helping ensure consistent, meaningful instruction across diverse contexts.
Empowering multilingual learners
A practical and flexible tool designed to meet the unique needs of multilingual learners, the Global Scale of English provides detailed progress tracking, clear learning objectives, and alignment with state standards, helping you and your colleagues create more targeted and effective multilingual language learning programs.
Learn more about and discover Pearson’s from Pre-K to high school and beyond.