Yes. Code Chrysalis assesses your language ability and communication skills.
Code Chrysalis considers and assesses language ability and communication skills separately. Language ability determines how easily you can gain new knowledge and learn new concepts and information in a language. Communication skills help to understand and interact with others such as delivering what you are thinking, giving others room to speak up and working in a team.
Code Chrysalis offers bootcamp programs that provide so much information in a short term. To make sure our students will make the most of learning at Code Chrysalis, we practice check-ins to test the language ability and communication skills of applicants whose native language is not English.
| Program | Test |
| Foundations | ◯ (Language check-in) |
| Foundations Lite | ✖️ |
| Immersive | ◯ (Technical check-in) |
As we value both language ability and communication skills, you cannot enroll in a Code Chrysalis program even if you have a good command of English but low communication skills. Though your language ability may not be at a fluent level, you can pass the check-in if you demonstrate your effective communication skills. For example, you talk about your point first and then talk more about the details on the point.
Language Ability
We would like to acknowledge that trying to pinpoint an exact “English level” is difficult because we value soft skills including communication skills (see more here).
Overall, if you can have conversations with others in English speaking at a regular pace, you should be OK. You don’t have to understand 100% of what people are talking about in class. The most important thing is whether you are able to capture the context and what is being conveyed to you. It is also totally fine to make grammatical mistakes if you can express your feelings or thoughts in English. If you have a strong motivation to boost your English ability, we would love that energy! It would be great if you can keep encouraging yourself to keep going during the course.
Please see below (1) Language level table, (2) Reading comprehension, and (3) Listening skills.
(1) Language level table
Please take a look at the chart and see at which level your language level is. This chart shows the language level we are expecting. This is just for your reference and you do not need to take or submit any of the official tests below to join our courses!
| TOEFL iBT | IELTS | TOEIC (R&L) | Eiken | |
| ◎ Level that you need to make efforts to understand technical knowledge in your second language during the course | 60~ | 6.5~ | 850~ | Grade 1 Grade Pre-1 |
| ◯ Level that you need to make a lot of efforts to understand technical knowledge in your second language during the course | 45~59 | 6.0~6.5 | 650~849 | Grade Pre-1 |
| △ Level that you may struggle with passing the check-in | ~44 | ~5.5 | ~649 | Grade 2 |
(2) Reading comprehension
Please read the materials to see if you feel comfortable reading documentation like that. You will read a lot of documentation like them during the courses.
- For Foundations’ applicants
- For Immersive applicants
If you are aiming for Immersive, you will go over A LOT of other topics too!
(3) Listening skills
We expect students to confidently understand 50% of the video contents and to roughly understand an extra 20% of the contents. You may experience that you are not sure if you understand roughly what they are talking about in the videos. That’s okay. The most important thing is you can effectively communicate about the rest of the contents.
For Foundations’ applicants
For Immersive applicants
Our instructors and students come from diverse backgrounds and you’ll hear a lot of different accents! We recommend you to watch and get a sense of what the class atmosphere might be like.
Communication skills
Here it shows minimum expectations regarding communication skills. You can also refer to the ”soft skills” listed in this course overview.
Foundations
Foundation is a basic coding course for JavaScript, so it does not require the knowledge of technical terms that are required in Immersive. At the language check-in, our staff will check if you can effectively communicate with others in the class.
- Listening: You can understand daily and highly social topics. You can answer questions and provide basic information.
- Reading: You can roughly understand reading materials that include some technical terms.
- Speaking: You make efforts to deliver your thoughts in a way others can understand. There are a few mistakes in basic vocabulary and grammar.
- Writing: There are a few mistakes in basic vocabulary and grammar. (Writing skills are not tested in the language check-in.)
Those who could not pass the language check-in are likely to:
- Use incorrect or vague words
- Ask to repeat the same question more than two times without telling which part they did not understand
- Not show care or give any space for staff to speak
- Have a long pause or be silent for a moment
- Take time to speak word to word in order to speak in a right grammar order
Immersive
At the Technical Check-in, our staff will check not only technical skills but also soft skills of course including language ability and communication skills.
Our staff will be your pair-programming partner at the check-in, so they will see if you try mutual understanding and active participation. Please refer to the Foundations’ language check-in criteria and the communication tips for the technical check-in below.
We expect you to:
- Effectively tell how you want our staff to code.
- Tell our staff how to code in programming terms.
- Give a well-ordered explanation
- Clearly tell which part you did not understand, and
- Make a few mistakes in a complex grammar structure or vocabulary usage.