License DELNA

The DELNA Screening and DELNA Short Writing Task are efficient, cost-effective ways to identify English language needs. You can license both assessments through the DELNA Office.

At the University of Auckland, students begin with a filter assessment, the DELNA Screening. If necessary, this is followed by a diagnosis made up of a DELNA Short Writing Task and Listening and Reading Tasks licensed from the Language Testing Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.

The DELNA Screening is effective for both students with an English-speaking background and students with English as an additional language.

The DELNA Screening is an online assessment that consists of two tasks:

1. Vocabulary (7 minutes)
   This task is designed to assess students’ knowledge of the meanings of words they are likely to come across in academic texts.
   
   
2. Timed reading (10 minutes)
   This is a 73-item task that measures the ability to decode a text under time pressure. A good implicit knowledge of sentence-level grammar and an understanding of English word collocations are an essential prerequisite for successful performance on this component.

The DELNA Screening can be run and administered entirely by a licensee and is made up of a student-facing tasks site and a staff-facing administration site.

In the DELNA Short Writing Task, students are presented with information in a table or diagram, which they must interpret, describe and elaborate on using approximately 250 words.

A task of this nature, which assesses the ability to understand and interpret information, is regarded as a key component of academic literacy.

DELNA raters

DELNA writing tasks are marked by raters who have university qualifications in academic writing and years of experience in language teaching and assessment. DELNA raters regularly refresh their rating practice by attending annual rater training sessions, and using the DELNA Online Rater Training System. This system is available to licensees.

To find out more about licensing, including costs, please contact the DELNA Office:

DELNA
Level 1, Old Choral Hall (Building 104)
Rooms 114, 116
7 Symonds Street
City Campus
University of Auckland
Phone: +64 9 923 8947
Email: delna@auckland.ac.nz
Open: Monday to Friday 9am–4pm

DELNA Manager
Dr Morena Botelho de Magalhães
Email: m.magalhaes@auckland.ac.nz

DELNA Administrator
Rachel Rogan
Email: rachel.rogan@auckland.ac.nz

Academic Adviser of DELNA
Associate Professor Rosemary Erlam
Email: r.erlam@auckland.ac.nz