Just what is the best way, if one exists, to test a language? I guess (as a realtively novice teacher) that the purpose of teaching is to educate students, and at some point you have to find out if that teaching is working. As I'm a simple man, it goes something like this:
- I'm an English teacher.
- I want to teach English to students. They are (generally) quite motivated and want to learn.
- There is this thing called a cirriculum (which can be the troublesome part as it seems to be designed by people who have no concept of what constitutes being 'important' when coming into contact with English speaking people (for example, it is REALLY necessary to learn 15 types of herbs & the all the names of the fountains in Olomouc (even if a couple of them no longer exist?!))
- At various points during the terms, I try to 'test' my students English - usually with an essay or a short (2-3 min) talk on a topic (from the cirriculum) but from a non-typical angle (for example: not to recite a recipe to me including certain herbs, but to tell me about their relationship with food - which is what most people in England find it easy to talk about & seems to be a normal way of life...)
- Then, at the end of the year come the final exams - the Maturita...which this year was a little bit more complicated as it involved both School Exams (supposedly easier) and State Exams (supposedly harder)
- What should it consist of? Speech? Writing? Listening? Reading? Singing? :-)
- And what topics SHOULD be on the cirriculum? I would consider this to be a VERY important part...
- And if that can be agreed, then what form should each part take? As a case in point, let us use (for an example) the current situation - the School Exam (15 mins talk on ONE topic with some grammar (in Eng or Cz, depends on the teacher or student...sometimes (depending on the teacher!) this grammar part can take up almost half of the exam!) And the other option is the State Exam (15 mins, broken into 4 parts which cover 4 different topics (from a similar but slightly different list) which all have strict time limits:
- - part 1: a topic with questions
- - part 2: comparing pictures concerning another topic & giving an opinion on a statement about it
- - part 3: the 'main' topic - 2-3 mins of 'free' speech and then some 'controlled dialogue' with the teacher
- - part 4: role play about another different topic
Any suggestions from you bright minds out there? :-)
The State Exam seems to me too organised... as if the students should act like machines (and teachers too). The time is so limited... I ve always liked the 15-minute-one-topic version, all in English (the grammar too, lets keep it in English since it is an English exam). I know that the State Exam tries to be objective and give the maturita more official status but in my opinion what is most important is how the student studied througout the whole four years (or eight?) not a 15-minute interview :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Kristina! Thanks for posting! You make an important point...funnily enough, one of the students last week in the exams (who had Schools & Education) suggested that the Czech System could be more like the US one where the students are assessed by their regular coursework & NO final exam is needed. I tend to agree with you, but to be honest, I would miss that 15 min old-fashioned interview, if only as it's the biggest possibility to listen to a student for so long :-) Normally, it's only 2-3 mins max...
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah, the traditional 15 minute exam is a good way for the student to express him/herself. I would mix the US system (as you said: students assessed by their regular coursework) and the old maturita - 15 minute talk, which would be a cherry on top of the cake :) - important but not as much as to throw the student out of the school since she/he has been working so hard during the years of study. I agree, 2 or 3 minutes is nothing...even the 15 minutes are quite a short time sometimes :)
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