MSI Press Blog

Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Doing Well on Classroom Tests Classroom Tests The better you know the language, the better you will do on the test. Period. It does not really matter what type of test it is. Classroom tests can take many different shapes. Most, though, they will usually fit into one of three types of tests: achievement, prochievement (pro-achievement), or proficiency. Each has a format; each has a content. These differ somewhat among the test types.   Achievement tests Achievement tests are a check of your knowledge. They may try also to test your language skills, but generally that can only be accomplished by a proficiency test. Format of achievement tests The format of an achievement test takes a limited number of forms. Sometimes the forms are combined. The test might have multiple choice answer, fill=ins, or matching items. Sometimes, they will have questions requiring short answers, but all the short answers must be the sam

Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Doing Well on Tests If it were up to me, I would never give a test. As a teacher, I have never found that a test provided much useful information beyond what I already knew from interacting with learners—and they certainly traumatize some learners. As a program administrator, I was in the position for three different programs I oversaw, not to require tests. I did not, and learners learned and, in my opinion, faster because they were not spending time studying for tests and taking tests but rather learning the language. [1] That said, tests are very likely here to stay. They are even big business for testing companies. So, clearly nearly every learner will need to be able to deal well with in-class and course tests and general proficiency tests, used for a variety or purposes other than course grades. I would urge all readers of this book to focus first on language learning. In that way, you will also be prepar

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Cognitive Styles A few cognitive styles have bee referred to and defined earlier (or footnoted). There are many kinds and systems of understanding cognition that have been proposed over the past 3-4 decades. The one I use in this book is the E&L Cognitive Style Construct (Ehrman & Leaver, 2002; Leaver, 2019). I have chosen it principally because it encompasses many other systems—the reason it was designed: to simplify the proliferating models floating around academic programs. [1] For this book, it provides an easy overview of styles because the E&L subordinates ten subscales [2] to two overarching categories, which make it easier and simpler to use as a first-step instrument. Cognition refers to the way people process information. After perceiving new information (through one or another sensory preference), a learner must process it, encoding it for memory. The effectiveness of how that is done