International Pharmacy Graduate Language Assessment (review)

The International Pharmacy Graduate Language Assessment (IPGLA) (LCRT Consulting, 2006) is a criterion-referenced special-purpose test that measures and describes English language communication skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Test tasks are specific to the pharmacy field and are designed to elicit the test-taker's special purpose knowledge and language related to the communicative demands typically placed on pharmacists in the workplace. Scores for each skill area are reported separately using the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) (Pawlikowka-Smith, 2000), a competency-based descriptive scale of communicative proficiency expressed as 12 benchmarks or levels of competency. The IPGLA was developed for individuals at Benchmark 7 and above.

Test purpose

The test was originally developed as the linguistic component of a comprehensive performance-based Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) to assess the competencies of internationally educated pharmacists seeking licensure in Ontario. The purposes of the PLA as a whole were to identify the learning needs of individuals admitted to Canadian Pharmacy Skills, the bridging program for internationally educated pharmacists, offered by the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and to possibly grant educational exemptions to individuals who demonstrated the required levels of competency (Austin, Galli, & Diamantouros, 2003).

However, the PLA proved too expensive to administer to CPS students. Currently, the IPGLA - the linguistic component of the PLA - is being used for two purposes: (a) as a language screening test for individuals seeking admission to the Canadian Pharmacy Skills bridging program at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy (one of several accepted tests, including IELTS, CANTest, and MELAB), and (b) as a means of assessing learner progress for the Enhanced Language Training for Internationally Trained Pharmacists program. This is an occupation-specific ESL class for individuals who have not met the fluency requirement for admission to Canadian Pharmacy Skills. It is a six-month course in which learners receive approximately 100 hours of instruction. Students take Version 1 of the test at the beginning of the program and Version 2 at the end of the program.

Test methods

The test has two parallel versions (1 and 2). Each consists of four sections with a total of 16 tasks. The speaking section (25 minutes) consists of a one-on-one interview and includes a conversation with the interviewer, a role play, and an interactive extended speech production task. The reading, listening, and writing sections take three hours to administer and include both selected responses (multiple-choice and true/false) and constructed responses (both limited and extended production). In keeping with the theoretical foundations of communicative language tests (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Douglas, 2000), task inputs consist of extended discourse, and a number of tasks are integrated. Therefore, the test methods are part of the test construct. For example, test-takers listen to a recorded voicemail message and a recorded telephone conversation and take notes. In another task, the input consists of a four-minute lecture on drug reactions in the elderly. Test-takers listen to the lecture, take notes, and then write a summary. In another integrated task, the input consists of a drug advisory letter issued by Health Canada. Test-takers read the advisory and then write an e-mail to a colleague summarizing the information in the advisory. Thus, the test response formats have a degree of authenticity and can also be considered part of the test construct.

For the selected response and limited response items, answer sheets are provided. The number of correct responses are transformed into a scaled score that is referenced to CLB proficiency levels. For the extended production speaking and writing tasks, each task is broken down into five discrete criteria relevant to the task (e.g., clarity and organization of information presented; adequacy of vocabulary; sociolinguistic competence [audience awareness]; suasion [ability to acquire patient's commitment, reassure]; and effectiveness in the role of pharmacist). Working with an analytic rating scale that provides a set of descriptors covering the five criteria or constructs at each of five levels, the rater assigns a CLB proficiency level to...