The OSSLT for English language learners

The numbers

In 2025–26, 58% of first-time eligible English language learners in English-language schools were successful on the OSSLT, compared with 86% of all first-time students, according to EQAO. The gap is not about ability. The test rewards familiarity with four specific kinds of Ontario text, with inference questions, and with one particular way of building an opinion essay, and those are learnable.

When should an English language learner write it?

Ontario's policy for ESL and ELD programs says English language learners should take the OSSLT when they have acquired the level of proficiency in English required for success. Most students write it in Grade 10. If a student is not yet at that level, the principal can defer the first attempt until the following year, in consultation with the student, the parents or guardians and the ESL or ELD teacher.

Two rules shape that decision. A deferred student still has to meet the literacy requirement before graduating. And an English language learner must attempt the OSSLT before they can take the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course instead, so the test cannot be skipped in favour of the course. Is the OSSLT mandatory sets out the diploma rules.

Which supports are allowed

Every student has the platform's built-in text-to-speech reader, zoom, line reader, high-contrast view, highlighter and rough-notes space, plus pencil, eraser and rough paper. The school records English language learners in EQAO's system as a special provision, and boards describe the provisions available as adjustments to the setting or the timing of the test; the school decides what applies.

Being an English language learner is not by itself a reason for accommodations. A student who also has an Individual Education Plan receives the accommodations it lists, as OSSLT accommodations explains.

What is not allowed is clear: no dictionaries, thesauruses or translators of any kind, including electronic ones, and nobody may define, translate or explain a word, a question or a passage. Everything has to come from the student's own English and the context on the page.

What makes the test harder for English language learners

• The dialogue and the real-life narrative use idioms and informal speech, and the questions ask what a speaker means rather than what they say.

• Many reading questions are inference questions. The answer is not stated; it has to be worked out from two or three details.

• Several questions ask what a word means in context. Without a dictionary, the only route is the sentences around it.

• The news report has a fixed structure, with the main facts first and details after, and questions test whether you see it.

• The opinion essay is marked on a clear opinion stated early, reasons supported with specific examples, and paragraphs that follow one another. A thoughtful essay that circles the topic before taking a side scores lower than a plain one that commits in the first sentence.

A preparation plan

The OSSLT measures skills, so preparation works best spread over four to five months rather than a few weeks. The plan in how to prepare for the OSSLT applies; these are the additions for English language learners.

• Read one of the four text types every week and answer questions on it. OSSLT reading questions explains each type and every question format.

• Keep a bank of linking words and phrases for giving an opinion, adding a reason, giving an example and concluding, and use them in every paragraph you write.

• Write one paragraph a week on a practice prompt, then a full essay every two weeks, and run each one through the free essay grader. The feedback names which rubric code each paragraph earns and what would lift it, which is the kind of specific feedback a dictionary cannot give.

• Practise the short written answer about a reading selection: answer the question in the first sentence, then give two details from the text.

• Take EQAO's free practice test twice, once with the introductory session to learn the tools, and once under test conditions. The text-to-speech tool helps many English language learners with long passages, and it is only useful if you have practised with it.

• In the last month, do timed sessions. How long is the OSSLT has the session lengths and a pacing plan.

For ESL and ELD teachers

The teaching the OSSLT guide has a month by month classroom plan and activities that work in any subject. The free practice test and the essay grader can be used with a whole class without an account.