What’s a common homework assignment or part of the so-called on-going assessment? Getting your students to write a diary is a pretty safe bet. We’ve all requested it and most students will deliver.
The diary is used as a reflection of general speech and trying to get the student to find their own voice in their L2. But at the end of the day, no matter how much of their voice we can help them find, they don’t always progress when it comes to speaking. Be it confidence or perhaps even the physicality of actually speaking the L2, there are often obstacles. One possible way to alleviate these obstacles are to change tact a little bit. Click here to read more.. »
How many words do you know?
Something that in reality, I consider to be, err, a stupid question. I don’t really care how many words I know, and it doesn’t really matter how many words I know. What matters is that I know the words that I need.
Anyway, watching your vocabulary grow is a motivational tool, so perhaps the question isn’t that stupid. Click here to read more.. »
Are you fluent?
It’s a pretty simple question. The answers are more than subjective.
To a non-language learner there seems to be the consensus that this question is a definitive yes or no. So not true. Everybody has their own interpretation of what fluency is and while there is a switch in all of us that can flick on or off when we reach our interpretation of fluency, it’s not easily defined across the board. Yes, we can look at something like CEFR or ILR scales (both in the Language Proficiency Scales post) but they’re still open to subjective analysis. Click here to read more.. »
There are numerous scales for assessing language proficiency, with three of the most widely known being the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the American Council for Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR).
Typically, formal testing takes place to ascertain your true level, but nothing is stopping you from self-assessing to give yourself an idea of your level. Just remember to be honest with yourself! Click here to read more.. »
