"Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people."
~William Butler Yeats

Why should your care about ELSA?
Diagnose English Literacy skills with ELSA​. ELSA is an acronym for English Literacy Skills Assessment. It is a language, norms-based, group-measuring instrument that can quantify and diagnose a respondent's English language (and numeracy) skills performance, equating the competency-input performance level to that of a South African English mother-tongue peer. In diagnosing, it shows up an individual's strengths and weaknesses in an English language work/training environment. It is essentially a prior-learning and placement guide for English (and Numeracy/Maths), but is also valuable to indicate the gap in functional literacy levels in an English environment.

The BIG Language problem in South Africa!

ENGLISH is the language of the work environment, but it is not necessarily the language of the people. 

Whether you are a student, CEO, leader, employee, employer or entrepreneur, we tend to agree with Stephen Wang:

 "Your success will be determined 5% by your academic credentials, 15% by your professional experiences, and 80% by your communication skills."

Can you see how truly effective communication can be challenging in a country with 11 official languages?

As someone who strives for greatness we urge you to at least acknowledge the magnitude of the 'English literacy skills' -dilemma and how it affects your bottom line in some way or another. 
Read 'The Real Cost of English Functional Illiteracy'
​If you share our passion.
1 in 10 South Africans are English first language users. The rest of us are all over the show. 

"What exactly is the language of the people?"
What we've learned from
ELSAs in the last 8 years*

The average South African: 
Functions at English skills level expected of grade 7 mother tongue users.

ELSA, the doorway to UNIQUE and Interesting SOLUTIONS

Elsa is a powerful assessment tool with many different applications.  Theunis Horne originally developed ELSA with the intention of using it as a diagnostics tool for upgrading English Literacy Levels. He was a pioneer, who wanted to provide unique  solutions to the Literacy Problem by using ELSA to properly  define it. The English Literacy Skills Assessment should not be seen as a test for pointing out inadequacies, but rater as a means of coming up with quality solutions that are in direct proportion to the quality of the description of the problem we’re trying to solve.
At no more than R200 per unit, ELSA is an affordable pre- and post-assessment diagnostic tool.
Includes scoring & report
Volume discount applies 
ELSA Administrators are trained and registered to use in-house for Licensed Clients
Purpose for which ELSA was used in 2016 and 2017

 Placement In Learning

% PERCENT
Vertical Divider

Job
Recruitment​

% PERCENT
Vertical Divider

Development
​

% PERCENT
Vertical Divider

Language 
Audit

% PERCENT
Vertical Divider

Learner 
Selection

% PERCENT

More things ELSA can do for you

The various ELSAs
How to become an ELSA User in
​4 EASY STEPS
Get 10 FREE ELSA assessments
for your Company!

ELSA Elementary

Paper and Pen assessment
​ELSA Elementary measures an individual’s strengths and weaknesses in an English language and training environment. 
it is suitable for assessing the skills of respondents with education levels up to Grade 9/ABET 4.  

Who uses this ELSA?
Companies and Institutions use it as a prior-learning and ABET-placement guide for English and Numeracy/Maths.
elsa_elementary_brochure.pdf
File Size: 1041 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

ELSA Intermediate

Paper and Pen assessment
ELSA Intermediate spans thirteen grades, i.e. Grade 1 to Grade 12+ / ABET 1 TO NQF4+ . It is, an upward extension of our ELSA Elementary.

Who uses this ELSA?
Companies and Institutions use it to assist recruitment, correctly place individuals in development and training programs and to determine the health and effectiveness of their current communication structures. 
elsa_intermediate_brochure.pdf
File Size: 1165 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

e-ELSA

Electronic assessment
One online adaptive assessment for both ELSA Elementary and Intermediate with immediate report generation.

Who uses this ELSA?
The supervised assessment:
​Companies and Institutions with access to online computers AND computer literate candidates. 
e-elsa_brochure.pdf
File Size: 414 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

E-ELSA@HOME

Any place and time. 
An Unsupervised online assessment: 
Who uses this ELSA?
​Individuals who are interested in assessing their own English efficiency to assist planning their future career and development journey.

What is ELSA?
elsa_an_overview.pdf
File Size: 598 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
elsa_a_brief_history_brochure.pdf
File Size: 595 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

What ELSA measures
elsa_crucial_workplace_demands.pdf
File Size: 664 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
what_elsa_measures.pdf
File Size: 674 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Technical features

  • ELSA is a standardised, reliable and valid assessment. 
  • It is essentially a scanning assessment; it scans language ability and determines performance levels as per cut-off ranges.
  • It not only measures the integration of listen, speak , read and writing skills, but also the ability to conceptualise and integrate with new knowledge in English. 
  • Performance is expressed as at a NQF level, benchmarked against English mother tongue speaker outcomes. 
  • The scoring is objective and the functions are mastery, survey and diagnostic.  
  • Predictive Validity: 84%;          Reliability: 0,67
  • ELSA is not a psychometric test, it measures skills.
  • ELSAs are mainly verbal (written) assessments including mixed power and speed testing.
  • It is a Paper & pen assessment, with an electronic version (e-ELSA) for computer literate candidates.
Vertical Divider

Benefits of ELSA

Using ELSA benefits your organisation/institution in more ways than one:

  • ELSA will pick out your potential achievers and identify the ones who don't have the language skills to develop their potential.
  • ELSA will also pick out those with poorly developed language skills. Once they've been identified, their skills can be upgraded.
  • ELSA will ascertain and verify the competency-input levels of newcomers, in particular those for whom English is a second or third language.
  • ELSA will help you determine the English comfort zone of your workforce or student body which, in turn, will enable you to make your instructional materials, in-house publications, standing orders, IR procedures, etc., user-friendly.