DLF Public School are Aptis Interschool Challenge Champions

• DLF Public School beat the competition from Delhi schools to become the British Council Aptis Interschool Challenge Champions

• Challenge Contest marks British Council Aptis for Teens launch in Delhi

In a closely contested public speaking competition which tested students’ English language skills, Rumella Jain from DLF Public School, Sahibabad battled nine other semi-finalist contestants to take the British Council Aptis Interschool Challenge Champions title. From a total of 25 participating schools, Vidhika Gadia from Bloom Public School, Vasant Kunj was the first runner-up and A. Shashank Vishwanath from Cambridge Foundation School was the second runner-up in the Challenge. The Challenge marked the launch of the British Council Aptis for Teens test – the new English language proficiency test from the British Council which was created especially for 13-17 year olds.

Teenagers around the world are starting to learn English earlier in their schooling, a trend that is driving the need for relevant, engaging and tailored learning content for 13-17 year olds. Aptis for Teens, the new English assessment tool developed by the British Council uses familiar topics and scenarios for teenagers. By using content which reflects activities and situations that would normally occur in an average teenager’s day, the test allows them to focus purely on their English language skills without having to learn new contexts or situational vocabulary which is outside their regular comfort zone.

The participating students were also the first ones to experience the Aptis for Teens test and also undertook a feedback survey* that was conducted by British Council in order to glean an insight into the student perspective, preferences and comfort with English language. The survey was conducted in February 2015 across 25 schools in Delhi by students in the age group of 13-17 years.

The survey revealed that students think that reading is the activity from which they learn the most; reading fiction or literature assigned in school (34%) or other books, magazines or newspapers in English outside school (57%) are the best method to help them learn.

Almost all those students surveyed (98%) feel that speaking was the skill that is most important for them to succeed in their education and career. Interestingly, speaking was also the skill the most number of students felt least confident in, revealing a clear skill deficit among the surveyed students. Despite this gap, three quarters (75%) of respondents still claimed that when faced with a choice, they would prefer a face-to-face interview over written essay questions when applying for admission to college or university.

The majority of respondents are more confident about their reading (84%) and listening skills (86%) than their speaking (64%) and writing skills (70%). Yet, 95 percent of students believe that writing is a key skill that they must develop in order to do well in their school English examination, again revealing a skill deficit. Developing a rounded approach to skill development is imperative to language learning for school-age students so they can learn and progress right from their teenage years towards global opportunities in study and work.

The British Council’s Sarah Deverall, Director Examinations India and Customer Services South Asia, congratulated DLF Public School on their success: “It is great to see so many students excited about learning English. We know that English skills open doors to career mobility and global opportunities so an early start on this linguistic ladder is very valuable. Aptis for Teens is a tool that can give English learners a boost on their journey towards English language competency in each of the four core language skills.”

Ashutosh Batta, Principal of Bloom Public School, Delhi said: “We are so pleased to be one of the winners of the British Council Aptis Interschool Challenge. British Council is internationally recognised for its English language training and assessment expertise so we are extremely proud that our winning students are going to be the brand ambassadors for Aptis for Teens in India. Our students are so eager to learn and are very excited about the opportunity to develop their language learning process with Aptis for Teens.”

The winning students delivered articulate speeches on a variety of topics; from inventions that they would like to create, to the success they want to achieve and how mobile applications change lives. The winning students have taken on the role of Aptis for Teens ambassadors, helping to build English language skills awareness in their own school networks.

*The feedback survey was conducted by British Council through an online platform in order to glean an insight into the student perspective, preferences and comfort with English language. The survey was conducted in February 2015 across 25 schools in Delhi by students in the age group of 13-17 years.

About Aptis for Teens:

Aptis for Teens is a flexible and adaptable English language proficiency test that has been designed specifically for teenagers by the British Council. A variant of the Aptis test, Aptis for Teens can be used to assess ability in all four English skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). It can also be customised to test one or more specific skills, which allows organisations to test the skills relevant to their needs.

Leading the industry in technology, Aptis for Teens uses a revolutionary new interactive platform, which develops, manages, delivers and monitors the test simultaneously. This platform also enables organisations to administer the test themselves, at a time that suits them.

About the British Council:

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide.

We work in more than 100 countries and our 8,000 staff – including 2,000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes.

We are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publicly-funded grant provides 20 per cent of our turnover which last year was £864 million. The rest of our revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, such as English classes and taking UK examinations, and also through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All our work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally. 

For more information, please visit: www.britishcouncil.org. You can also keep in touch with the British Council through http://twitter.com/britishcouncil and http://blog.britishcouncil.org/.