Company
The English Listening Brand
EnglishListening.com, English Listening and English Listening Lounge are brands owned by Lidget Green, Inc.
Vision
Lidget Green’s vision for English Listening is to be a useful online study resource for second-language learners of English, who wish to improve their listening skills. Many ESL students have difficulty finding access to authentic speech samples in their English studies. This site has a large collection of authentic listening materials that cover the full difficulty range, from very easy to quite challenging.
Team
Dr. Gary Buck: President
Dr. Buck is the founder and President of Lidget Green, and is an international testing expert, with a vast amount of experience. His particular specialty is testing English as a second language, and in this field his work is internationally known. He is the author of the standard textbook on testing second-language listening comprehension, and has published in numerous academic journals.
Gary has worked in a number of the leading testing organizations in the US: he was the Director of Testing in the ELI at the University of Michigan, where he developed a new testing system to supplement the established ‘Michigan tests’; he was the Dean of Testing at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, where he led the design and development of many of the US Department of Defense’s high-stakes language tests; he worked in the Research Division at ETS, on the SAT, Advanced Placement, the TOEFL and the TOEIC programs; and he was the Director of Testing for Ballard & Tighe, designing tests to meet the No Child Left Behind legislation.
Gary is responsible for the overall creation and vision of English Listening.
Pacia Platzek: Vice President for Product Development
Pacia is the Vice President for Product Development. She holds two degrees, one in Early Childhood Education and the other in Engineering Technology. She has a strong background in media development.
She is currently taking the lead in the sites subscribers’ services, including content management and high quality user experience.
Robin Stevens: Senior Project Manager
Robin has worked in the field of language assessment for 18 years. Prior to joining Lidget Green, Robin was as a test developer at the University of Michigan’s English Language Institute where she worked on international test programs. Previously she served as Assistant Vice President of Assessment at Ballard & Tighe, Publishers and a research specialist at the University of California at Los Angeles’ Center for the Study of Evaluation/CRESST, where she conducted test development and research related to the assessment of academic English at the K-12 level. A former Fulbright scholar to Taiwan, Robin has master’s degrees in TESOL and Asian Studies and a bachelor’s in International Business.
She is currently a Senior Project Manager overseeing consultancy projects for high-stakes assessment programs. In this capacity, she leads a number of team of item writers, developing item writing specifications and guidelines, training materials, and procedures for maintaining quality control during the item development process.
Lynn Gray: Business Manager
Lynn Gray is the Accounting Manager for Lidget Green, Inc. She has over 30 years business experience working in a variety of accounting environments including academia, arena, retail, service industries and mortgage lending. She has managed all bookkeeping functions, worked with company accountants, served as human relations and payroll manager. She has managed office staff and computer operations. In addition, she has written policy and office procedures.
Currently, Lynn runs the accounting department for Lidget Green and maintains and manages all business records.
Eric Platzek: IT Manager
Eric Platzek is the Information Technology Manager at Lidget Green. He graduated with B.S. in Computer Science and B.A. in Psychology in 2009 from Binghamton University in New York.
Eric is responsible for various technical aspects at Lidget Green: software testing, network troubleshooting, database design using Filemaker 11, Filemaker Server 11 management, creation of end user technical documentation, desktop technical support, web site creation and management.
