Small Business Spotlight: Extempore

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Our small business spotlights are usually restaurants or other hospitality businesses, but our neighborhoods are also home to many innovative high-tech businesses. Extempore, a language assessment tool provider, is based in the Sheridan neighborhood. We talked to Carlos Seoane, Founder and CEO, about the products and services his company provides, and why the Sheridan neighborhood was a good fit as a business location.   

Carlos SeoaneQ:  You’ve said that there are four skills in the world language classroom – speaking, writing, reading and listening. How does Extempore aid the learner in building these skills?

A:  Right. Many of your readers can probably relate to the pressure of speaking during language classes back in their school years. That’s what Extempore was designed for: alleviate the pressures around speaking and provide students and teachers with more opportunities to practice. Teachers want their students to speak the target language more; we want to be the platform where that occurs. As an assessment platform, Extempore allows instructors to create practice activities and high stakes assessments that measure students’ growth in each of these four skills.

For example:

a) Teachers could provide a text for students to read paired with comprehension questions.

b) Likewise, instructors could upload or record their own audio files, have students listen to these, and then provide either comprehension questions or a follow-up task based on that recording.

c) For speaking, teachers can create any prompt for students to respond to: open-ended questions, communicative tasks, simulated conversations.

d) Finally, instructors can assess writing in a similar way to how they assess speaking: by providing prompts and a task for students to complete by producing the target language.

Q:  What sets Extempore apart from other language software or apps?

A:  This is an interesting question. I would say the way it allows teachers to provide personal, customized feedback for each student response. Similarly, its flexibility and versatility provide a platform for instructors to create high-quality yet efficient summative and formative assessments that students can complete in minutes. It’s really the “Swiss Army Knife” of assessment platforms, if I may. It also saves instructors time and provides a low-pressure environment for students to record audio responses. Instead of having to sit with each student one on one, teachers can now listen to student recordings, saving class time. Likewise, when students can record on their own devices in a preferred location, they can speak in the environment that suits them best, instead of in front of their peers, which may cause anxiety. On top of this, as students accumulate completed assessments, they slowly develop their own portfolios that can illustrate growth over periods of time. So Extempore not only measures the short-term gains in each assessment, but through comparing results and responses, it can provide detail on long-term progress as well. Please note that our assessment platform can find use in any class that needs to measure student output – gym, music, voice, etc.   

Q:  Your website states Extempore can lead to better cultural competency. Tell us about this notion.

A:  Yes. Just how instructors can provide prompts to build linguistic skills, so too can they create prompts to stimulate cultural conversations. These could be pre-class discussion prompts or post-discussion reflections. However, instructors use Extempore, by including cultural discussions and prompts on the platform, they can assess and measure growth in cultural awareness and knowledge. For example, teachers could upload a short video of the Carnival festival in Brazil and have students reflect on the video by responding with see, think, and wonder: What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder? This is an easy way to engage students with the target culture in a low-pressure environment.

Q:  Is Extempore a good tool for language students of all ages?

A:  Absolutely. We have learners ranging from kindergarten to college using the platform.

Q:  Your office is at 1317 Marshall Street NE. Why did you choose the Sheridan neighborhood for a physical office location?

A:  The Sheridan office is a perfect spot for our team. It’s centrally located and has all the amenities we need to work well together. This office lends itself well to visits from prospective investors and clients who are interested in learning more about Extempore.

Q:  How may we follow your news?

A:  You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. We have some exciting updates and content coming out in the future, so stay tuned!