Tuesday Tip for Language Learning #33: How to Prepare for a Written General Proficiency Test
Excerpt from Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star
How to Prepare for a Written General Proficiency Test
Sometimes language
learners have to take a general proficiency test not connected with any course
they are take. Sometimes, a teacher may incorporate a proficiency test into the
end of course requirements. Other times, you may need to take a general
proficiency test for language course placement or for a job. These tests differ
from classroom proficiency tests. They are broader in scope and more demanding
in the skill set they expect. There are very few such tests in existence. The
American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages developed one for academic
programs (K-12 and university); you can find information at the organization’s
website. The Foreign Service Institute has its own proficiency test for
diplomats, and the US Department of Defense administers the Defense Language
Proficiency Test (DLPT) to its departmental employees, service members, and
employees of other government agencies; information can be found online at many
sites, including in the English Wikipedia. Some other government agencies also
have their own proficiency tests, but that information is not available to the
general public.
Preparing for the test
Here are some thoughts to
keep in mind as soon as you know you will be taking a general proficiency test:
·
We become good at what we practice. If you
spend a lot of time trying to guess what will be on proficiency test and practicing its format,[1] you lose a lot of
language-learning time, and that will not serve you well on the test.
·
Proficiency tests of any sort are looking
at how well you handle the language; for that, you need good skills, which are
built up over time, not overnight. To gain these skills:
o
Develop good reading, writing, listening,
and speaking strategies.
o
Read everything you can get your hands on.
Do not discriminate by genre.[2] Read chat, newsletters,
blogs, history, sociology, novels, poems, memoirs, essays, notes, letters,
comic books; if it is written and you can get your hands on it, read it.
Prioritize your reading toward authentic materials of any sort.
o
Listening to everything you can,
preferably authentic materials such as movies, YouTube, television (Oh, my, the
range of topics, formats, and levels of language that provides!),[3] and anything else you can
find. Is it over your head? Fine. If you listen enough, it won’t be over your
head for long.
o
Speak with everyone you can—even if it is
hard.
o
Write in various genres and share your
writing with a native speaker; ask for correction.
·
As you read, write, listen, and speak, try
to increase the number of learning strategies you use. A great starting place
is the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1986).[4]
·
Authentic materials do not occur without a
context. Learn the context you will need to understand what you are reading and
hearing: become familiar with the culture(s) where your target language is
spoken.
·
Once you develop some language skills,
start tutoring others. The best way to learn something is to teach it. Teach
them content, but also teach them learning strategies for skill development.
Everything you teach others will reinforce what you know and what you can do.
daily
preparation = better test scores
Taking the test
If you use all four
skills[5] on a regular basis, when
you get to the test, you will be prepared. Now, here are some suggestions for
handling the test:
·
Follow the suggestions in the previous
section for classroom proficiency test taking and anxiety relief.
·
When you do not understand what you are
reading or hearing—be prepared that there will be much that you do not
understand so don’t let that panic you but rather:
o
focus on what you do understand and use
your reading and listening strategies to figure out as much about what you do
not;
o
skip the question—it is better to get one
question wrong than to lose so much time on one question that you will not have
time to finish ten (if points are not taken off for a wrong answer, make a
quick guess—you may be right—and go on);
o
pull in background knowledge and eliminate
some of the answers as incorrect simply because they do not reflect reality or
the culture, then choose the remaining one that seems closest to what you do
understand and go on; and
o
pull in content knowledge to give a
context to what you are reading or hearing.
·
Read carefully; avoid careless mistakes.
·
Concentrate on the paper in front of you;
it is easy to get distracted by people around you or noises inside or outside
of the room so try to get into “the flow” and be aware of only yourself and the
test.
·
If the test is timed, pace yourself.
daily
preparation + informed test taking = best test scores
Learn the language in all
its forms to do well on a proficiency test.
[1] If
the test will be in a format with which you are unfamiliar, then it does make
sense to practice that format a few times. The operant word is few. Once
you are comfortable with the format, stop. Go back to spending your time on
learning more language.
[2]
Lone of the best language learners I know, a colleague from Germany with
English skills that are every bit as good as any educated native speaker of
English claims that she built her language skills through “promiscuous
reading”—never saw a story, book, or text that she was not willing to read,
including comic books and notes native speakers wrote to each other.
[3]
When my then 11-year-old daughter and I spent part of a year in Moscow, she
learned Russian initially by watching Winnie the Pooh cartoons. The language
was way over her head, but she knew the content and so learned that part of the
language quickly. Of course, going to a Moscow school every day also put in
over her head, and again very quickly she began interacting with the school
children in her class. So, don’t back off from the hard stuff.
[4]
This is the original SILL. Oxford has updated it over the years; check out her
books on learning strategies—they are a rich source for what you need.
[5]
Even if you will be tested on only listening and reading, you will be fare less
well on the test than someone who has used all four scores. Research (Hopman
& McDonald, 2018; Hsu, 2004; Leaver & Shekhtman, 2003, among a fair
number of other studies) has shown that these skills reinforce each other—and
you need as much reinforcement as you can get!
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