After the activities are over, it will be good for you to sit down with the learner and discuss with him or her how the current language learning process is going. What is he struggling with? What is she enjoying? What are they doing in their language lessons, if they’re doing lessons? Get a pretty…
In the last four posts, I’ve talked about why (and why not) to assess your language proficiencies, and what skills to assess. This time, we’ll look at the all-important question of how to actually do the assessment. To begin, start by using the three (or five, if you’re working in a commonly-written language) broad categories…
Last time I started looking at the skills you want to assess under the listening comprehension . Now on to speaking skills: Range: What kinds of topics can the learner speak about? What domains of life are out of his/her range? How deeply can he/she talk about a given topic? Test this by asking questions…
In the previous post, I talked about the good and bad reasons for doing an assessment of your language abilities, making the case that a multi-faceted, forward-reaching, practical assessment could be an important part of maintaining motivation and continuing to progress in a language. But if this assessment is to be “multi-faceted,” what kinds of…
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Let’s start with this: do an assessment in order to get a clear, multi-faceted, and detailed picture of your current skill set. (see part 1 here) Optimally, your assessment will allow you to have a more objective, accurate idea of your current proficiencies. This description should be clear in that it uses language you understand…
When many language learners hear the word “assessment” or “evaluation,” they immediately tense up. Language learning is a humbling process, as you become a child again in a new environment and relearn how to interact in the world. So it makes sense that critiquing your ability in a foreign language would be a stressful, undesirable…