What is the Insigna 360° Language Assessment?

The Insigna 360º Language Assessment is a tool that allows to determine the professional’s communicative performance in social and, especially, professional contexts. The assessment is not intended to measure content directly (that is, how well test takers know the topic). Instead, it is designed to examine how the professional communicates in social contexts, in their ability to respond to everyday communication needs; in professional contexts, in their ability to interact in corporate oral and written situations; as well as in cultural contexts, in their ability to perceive cultural differences in order to act and interact accordingly.

What skills does the Insigna 360º Language Assessment cover?

The employee is assessed in the following skills: written comprehension (reading), written production (writing), oral comprehension (listening) and oral production (speaking). The component “use of language”, which encompasses grammar and vocabulary, is also assessed.
The skills are assessed through multiple-choice tasks as well as though written and oral tasks (constructed response).

What are the performance parameters employed in the assessment?

The Insigna 360° Language Assessment uses the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) as a reference for describing the professional's level of linguistic performance in each of the skills. The CEFR provides an international base of comparison of language proficiency in a foreign language.
It is estimated that a language learner needs to take an average of 50 hours of formal instruction and 20 hours of guided study and/or exposure to the language in order to evolve one level within the Insigna Framework.

How is the placement in the Insigna Framework determined?

The global score is calculated based on a weighted average of the scores in each skill.
When assessed, the writing and speaking skills have a greater weight, as these skills require the production of language.
Since the Insigna 360 language assessment presupposes a balanced level of performance across the four skills, when such balance is not identified, the speaking skill will determine the test-taker’s overall performance. In such case, the report will note that: "Considering the four skills assessed, all important for communication, the performance in the oral production is two or more levels below the average performance presented in the other skills. For this reason, the oral production performance prevailed for purposes of placement within the CEFR.".

Insigna framework | CEFR