Evaluate Business English Proficiency with AI EnglishPro

 On July 29, 2020, we organized a webinar on iMocha’s AI EnglishPro with Sujit Karpe, our CTO. Here are our top takeaways from the webinar! 

Software and IT industry is customer centric. That means delivering what the customers require, addressing queries, and providing solutions is an important role of an IT employee. This is why an IT employee requires good communication skills. Many of the clients and stakeholders of iMocha complained that the candidates they assess lack communication, written and verbal, skills. 

It was noted that only few of the employees working on a project had decent communication skills and could converse well with their peers, customers, and stakeholders. Apart from verbal interaction, written communication via emails and integration portals was also a cause of concern. iMocha realized that lack of communication skills is a crisis we’re all facing, and launched a new feature called the Artificial Intelligence English Proficiency Test to address this. 

The test was designed in reference to CEFR, Common European Framework of References for Languages. There are other tests like Pearson’s English test and Mettl’s SpeechX, which are currently in use. However, we believed there’s always scope for improvement. We wanted to come up with something that’s not just different but improved too.  

Keeping this in mind, AI Enabled English Pro test was designed.  The test is a fun and quick way of assessment, and focuses on assessing reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills of a candidate.  

To develop this test, artificial intelligence was used to develop NLP models. It analyzes the writing skills of a candidate, responses of which are recorded in a video. The evaluation includes innovative parameters of assessment such as, sentiment analysis, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, oral fluency, e-mail writing, and has face recognition feature.  

Components of the Test  

• The first task a candidate has to do in the test is speaking, wherein they have to introduce themselves and speak about three achievements in the last two years.  The introduction is to be kept short, ideally only for a minute.  
• Second task covers writing skills, where a candidate has to write a formal letter to project manager stating the reason behind the delay in project completion in about 200 words.  
• Third task assesses the reading abilities where the candidate has to answer simple tests like cloze test, sentence correction, and reading comprehension.  
• The fourth section covers listening skills where candidate has to listen to an audio and answer a few questions.  

After the test, a report is generated with actionable insights displayed in the form of easy to understand graphs such as time taken by a candidate has taken to answer a particular question. The test is suitable for candidates who have average or high proficiency in English. The test is highly customizable, which makes it is easy to increase the difficulty level of the test. This can help in assessing any candidate with good knowledge of English or good work experience where they have been communicating with every day.  

Here are three best questions answered in the webinar, which may resolve some of your queries:  

• What is so different and innovative thing about this test? 

The innovative aspect of this test is the use of NLP. Natural Language Processing is a subfield of artificial intelligence and computer science, which enables interaction between humans and computers. It may be a complex technology, but it simply means that with NLP computers can process data in human language.  

• What about the security features and compliances? 

Since the test captures the video of the candidate, iMocha has followed various compliances like ISO 27000, GDPR, and has ensured security measures.  The data is end-to-end encrypted, processes are controlled, and policies are in place. Along with these measures, vulnerability assessment is done.  

• How many candidates can take this test at once and can we add our own questions to the test?

The NLP model has 70% accuracy, hence the report generated is reliable. The candidates can also go through their responses before submitting, which helps them self-analyze their performance. The test also allows 2000 candidates to attempt every minute and is customizable. iMocha helps with designing the test as per the requirements of the organization, which makes AI English Pro test much better and preferred option than other English proficiency tests.  

You can watch the webinar here.