Preparing for exams, tests, or assessments can be a stressful experience, especially for those learning in a second language. Exams and assessments often require strong language skills, such as essay writing, comprehensible answers showing the understanding of main points and details, or at the very least multiple choice questions that test a learner’s ability to pick out detailed information. This means that second language learners have a heavy cognitive load when preparing for exams, because they need to develop language skills as well as often learning new content. With exams that require extensively developed writing, learners are having to learn the skills of writing in English in addition to developing their English language skills (Kietlinska, 2006).
Find out here how to support multilingual families during exams.
Types of exams (content and language)
Ensuring that learners understand the content (if it is a content based exam or assessment) is very important, in addition to providing learners with the essential vocabulary, and consolidating understanding by using the vocabulary in meaningful contexts.
Some English exams, such as IELTS or TOEFL, are not content based but instead test overall language proficiency. For these exams, preparation should focus on general language skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Regular exposure to English in different contexts will help learners develop these skills effectively.
Assessing beginner learners
It is important to note that for those new to a language and still in the foundation levels, while it may be appropriate to give short tests on recent vocabulary acquisition or use tests for class placement or for diagnostic purposes, tests or exams in a new language can be overwhelming.
It may not be appropriate to put young learners of a language or foundation level learners into an exam in which they are not likely to succeed. There are other ways of assessing a learner’s skill level in a language, such as classroom observation and ongoing classroom assessment which may be more appropriate for younger learners and those in early stages of language learning.
Language skills & vocabulary
As learners are developing their language levels in preparation for any exam, it is important to focus on developing general language skills. Focussing on general language skills includes building up vocabulary knowledge, general reading skills, and writing strategies that learners can call on to plan their writing with meta-cognition in mind as well as accurate language structure and vocabulary knowledge.
An important aspect of revising includes vocabulary acquisition, whether that be context based language, or developing a strong general vocabulary base. According to Nation (2001), “a relatively small amount of well-chosen vocabulary can allow learners to do a lot” (Nation, 2001: p.9).
Vocabulary can be sorted into 4 types of words: high-frequency words, low-frequency words, academic vocabulary, and technical words. The 2000 most frequently used words are crucial for those going on to further study in English (Nation, 2001). Academic vocabulary is important for learners studying English for academic purposes and can be taught in the classroom or through activities that focus on those words.
Low-frequency words make up the largest group of words, but as the label suggests, the individual words themselves occur infrequently. It is important for teachers to expose learners to texts that build their understanding of different contexts unfamiliar to the learner but familiar to those living in a particular context. Teachers can further help learners to develop vocabulary acquisition by training them in strategies to deal with unfamiliar vocabulary (Nation, 2001). These strategies could be:
- Training learners to guess meanings from the context
- Teaching learners about word parts so they can pick apart a word to predict the meaning of a word
- Teaching learners how to successfully use dictionaries
Exam formats and expectations
Some strategies for exam preparation that work with both types of exams include developing a familiarity with the exam format and expectations. Learners need to get familiar with the type of questions, whether they are multiple choice or open ended questions requiring exam-type answers. In understanding this, they can prepare their priorities in answering questions and where to maximise their time.
Part of building familiarity with exam formats involves practising answering questions under exam conditions. This means learners develop confidence and reduce anxiety around planning within the exam.
Strategies for exam preparation
A strategy for preparing for an exam with a known format could be learning set patterns to answer questions. Teachers could help by providing sentence starters for an expected type of question, or providing learners with substitution tables or templates which they could use to modify their answers. It is important that learners also learn to work with these strategies as part of their exam practice or formative assessments.
Additionally, understanding strategies involved in effective exam time management and execution is equally important. These include revision strategies within the exam, such as editing and revising what they have written (both important steps to develop understanding of how to organise texts), understanding their audience, the purpose of their writing, as well as other meta-knowledge in writing (Barkaoui, 2015).
Finally, using an integrated language approach is a strong method to consolidate general language skills (De La Paz & Sherman, 2013). This could involve reading an article, highlighting useful phrases, note-taking, and then writing a short summary or talking about it. This could be an in-class activity but also something a learner could develop as an independent strategy to revise and build language skills.
Teaching learners the strategies for exam preparation can be as important as teaching the content and facilitating language learning within the class.
References
De La Paz, S. & Sherman, C.K., 2013. Revising strategy instruction in inclusive settings: Effects for English learners and novice writers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46(2), pp.167–181.
Barkaoui, K., 2015. Perspectives on revision in second language writing: What teachers need to know. Journal of Second Language Writing, 27, pp.1–18.
Kietlinska, K., 2006. Revision and ESL students. In: A. Horning & A. Becker, eds. Revision: History, theory, and practice. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press; The WAC Clearinghouse, pp.69–86.
Nation, I.S.P., 2001. Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
