In practice, we often use the words test and assessment interchangeably. But they do have slightly different meanings.
Students need to know what is expected from them, how they can best prepare for any assessment, what counts and what does not count, and how they’re going to be assessed. And this also gives them an opportunity to learn how they are making...
It has been argued – with good reason one might add – that of all four skills involved in foreign language learning, the hardest to achieve yet the most rewarding is speaking the language in question. Being an FL student myself this year, taking my B2 exams in Spanish shortly, I’ve put my self in my students’ shoes and gained some empathy as to why the...
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies -- using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language -- that they can use to help themselves...
Speaking is the active use of the English language to express not only meaning but also personal ideas and feelings. There is a big discrepancy between understanding the English language and being able to constructively use it. Students of B1 level have a relatively good understanding of the English language and should be given input to practise it.
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The big day has come and your heart palpitates with stress and fear. The only thought that crosses your mind is “Will my candidates open their mouth and speak or will they just gasp without uttering a single word in front of the examiner?” Challenging by nature, the speaking test can become the nightmare of test takers and exam prep teachers. What can you...
“A good teacher is hard to find,
difficult to leave
and impossible to forget”.
If you keep that in mind you will be a successful teacher when facing an adult audience willing to better their speaking skills for their career.
Always remember that you should have to:
Make them feel at home and make...
“I don’t mind talking to you or my classmates in English; in fact, I quite enjoy it. But it’s different when I have to have a conversation with a stranger whose job is to look for mistakes in what I say and how I say it – the examiner is not there to support me, but to judge me. And they’re not interested in talking to me, they just want to do their...
One of the claims of language tests administered in Greece is that topical knowledge is not tested so that all candidates may stand the same chance of performing well. However, topical knowledge, especially in the form of intercultural knowledge, is one of the constructs that should be tested according to the CEFR by which all language tests are supposed...
Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any...
