Versant Spoken English Test

Versant is a one-of-a-kind spoken language test that uses patented, computer-based technology to provide a measure of language proficiency that's as reliable as most human-rated tests. Versant enables you to ensure applicants and employees have the level of spoken language skills necessary to correctly assess a situation or understand a problem and give your customers a great experience.

Who is it for?

Versant is a great tool for evaluating applicants who will have frequent contact with customers, including:

• Call Centre Representatives
• Customer Service
• Technical Support
• Sales
• Cashiers/Clerks

Make Smarter Staffing Decisions

Use the Versant English Test understand how an individual’s oral language proficiency may affect their ability to communicate successfully in business or professional environments.

Very Sophisticated, Yet Easy to Administer

The Versant English Test can be administered anytime, anywhere, and provides scores almost instantly. Tests are delivered over the telephone and scored by computer. The test takes only 15 minutes to complete.

A test-taker makes a phone call, interacts with the computer over the phone, and then hangs up when finished. Our patented testing system then analyses the test-taker responses and returns a score, all within a matter of minutes. Administrators may then access the test results via the internet.

No software to buy – test-takers simply need a test paper and standard telephone.

Versant Scores

For each test, an individual Score Report is generated. Every Versant Score Report will contain an Overall Score and four subscores.

Overall Score

The Overall Score represents the ability to understand spoken English and speak it intelligibly at a native conversational pace on everyday topics. Scores are based on a weighted combination of four diagnostic subscores.

Subscores

1. Sentence Mastery: The ability to understand, recall and produce English phrases and clauses in complete sentences. Performance depends on accurate syntactic processing and appropriate usage of words, phrases and clauses in meaningful sentence structures.
2. Vocabulary: The ability to understand common everyday words spoken in sentence context and to produce such words as needed. Performance depends on familiarity with the form and meaning of everyday words and their use in connected speech.
3. Fluency: The rhythm, phrasing and timing evident in constructing, reading and repeating sentences.
4. Pronunciation: The ability to produce consonants, vowels, and stress in a native‑like manner in context. Performance depends on knowledge of phonological structure of everyday words.

Validity Studies

• With a correlation of r = .97, the computer-generated Versant Test scores are virtually indistinguishable from human scoring
• Versant is highly reliable as it is specifically designed to analyse speech of non-native speakers using patented speech processing technology
• Proven to be an unbiased assessment for a company's international applicants

The following products are not available on the TalentLens online platform. To purchase these products please contact our clients services team on 1800 080 405 (Australia) or 0800 452 585 (NZ) or email anisa.zulfiqar@pearson.com.au