Verification test = language ability?

As a person who loves to learn languages, he will more or less play against the language test. As he has more and more experience in the test, he gradually experiences a classic saying:

Passing the check is just the beginning of learning the language.

In the past, I always thought that after getting a certificate, I would have relative language ability, which is often a conclusion that ignores the operation of brain neuroscience. Skills will degenerate if they are not used frequently. It can also be said to be the result of survival evolution. The brain will think that skills that are not frequently used are not necessary to maintain, and the limited resources should be invested in the ability that is urgently needed for survival. Getting a license just tells you that you either keep investing in practice to maintain your strength, or you invest more in progress. (Extended reading: Language is a skill, not knowledge.) The license is not a time machine . Once you get it, your language ability will have a "degeneration stop point". , and your current language proficiency still depends on whether you practice every day. in other words..

The test certificate is only by the way , continuous practice is the real language ability.

In other words, for those who continue to practice the language, the exam is just a small relay station in the process, and it is not very important. For most people who use the right method and learn the language well, the test is actually an achievement of "not impossible, but not wanting", because more importantly, the acquired language ability can lead them to expand the breadth of life .

However, it is undeniable that the importance of certificates in modern society is a threshold for many fields. Unfortunately, such a setting may tend to be short-sighted and short-sighted, and it is easy to obscure the essence of language learning. (Extended reading: It turns out that your so-called motivation is the reason why you are not good at learning a language ) But don’t get me wrong, this article is not to persuade people not to take the language test, because many people have the goal of checking the test. I finally discovered the joy of learning a language, so I don’t want everyone to put the cart before the horse and take the exam as the purpose of learning a language. Usually, it’s either empty at the end of the game, giving up halfway, or stopping practice after the goal is achieved, and then degenerating, which is undoubtedly just a waste of time. .

In fact, if you want to learn a language, testing and language skills should be discussed separately , and you should know exactly where your motivations lie. Because I've met so many people who confuse the two that they create a language learning bottleneck for themselves. What kind of bottleneck is it? For example, after passing the test, I thought I had such language ability, so I stopped practicing. After a period of time, my language ability was no longer in line with the strength of the original certificate, but I didn't know it. Or try to follow the learning progress of the verification test, but in the end, you find that you are not very good at using the language at all, but paradoxically, the score is very high. These examples ignore the fact that language learning is instinctive (Extended reading : Why do some people learn languages faster?) , that is a shallow process, any form of learning, through The brewing of time, when looking back one day, only to find that compared with the self at the beginning, the language ability has gradually taken shape. But unfortunately, the measurability of the verification test makes it easy to misunderstand that language ability has a clear boundary between "will" and "no". However, the continuous learning of language is a dynamic change. Practice progresses and stops. Then retreat, the focus is on continuation . (Extended reading: Learning languages, self-study or tutoring? (Part 2))

Let's go back to the discussion of the difference between the two. As a learner, if the test is the goal, you need to clearly understand it. Depending on the format of the test, it is very likely that you will not have the language ability you want. Verification test is a form of quantitative language ability, like an intelligence test, which literally defines a person by putting invisible intelligence and irresponsible numbers on it. At present, Harvard University professor of cognition and education Ward. According to Howard Gardner's research on intelligence, there are as many as eight categories of intelligence, and it is not an intelligence test that can define a person's achievement. Just as it is difficult to measure a person's language ability in a test, whether the test is passed or not (even if it is a low-flying flight or one point of hatred) cannot clearly define an individual's language ability. Accreditation exams should be a means to clearly tell you where you are lacking. Since accreditation exams have such a nature, many exams will combine business models and recruit a large number of candidates with the orientation of "easy to quantify". Among them, multiple-choice questions are the most common, and it is more common to test in the form of only listening and reading tests, such as TOEIC, Japanese Language Test (JLPT), and the Preliminary Test of the National English Test. On the other hand, this is also a market mechanism demand, and a large number of candidates in the labor market need a certificate to prove their language strength. If such tests are coupled with language skills such as "speaking" and "writing" that are difficult to topic, it will be difficult for the time-consuming manual review to meet the needs of the large human market. This is also why the written and speaking tests are always more expensive than those of reading and listening, and the reason is that a manual review mechanism has been added. Looking back, such a question design naturally cannot reflect all aspects of language learning, let alone define an individual's ability.

Having said so much, I just hope that everyone will clearly recognize this fact as soon as possible before deciding to apply for the language test, and then make a labor-saving plan to save time when taking the certificate test. The most fearful thing is that before starting, the two (exam and strength) are considered inseparable, which leads to the longer the study time, the greater the gap between strength and score, and giving up learning. Therefore, once you know that the verification test has such a "feature" , you don't need to worry about whether you will use this language, so as to formulate the correct test plan. Here are a few key points for taking the exam based on my experience:

1. Since it is an exam, the number of words in the language test also has a range.

Yes, at first glance, how can there be a range of language tests with too many words to memorize? But what I want to say here is that depending on the type of test, the words to be memorized are also different. A single word is a range. In a language test, it is almost impossible to cover all the words you have memorized (except for high scores and low reports), so you only need to be familiar with about 80% of the words, and the remaining 20% may be unfamiliar, perhaps It is an uncommon word, and there are not many topics, and it can usually be understood from the context. Or take TOEIC as an example, the words that are easy to be confused are those that appear every year, why? Because according to experience, these are the words that candidates are prone to mistake. Collecting them can get some fixed points. And business words actually have a scope. At the end of the review, you will find that fewer and fewer new words appear, and you are almost reaching the so-called "scope" boundary. Taking the Japanese test N1 again, in the past, in addition to the vocabulary required for N2, I collected more than 5,000 words, phrases, and idioms from cartoons, Japanese dramas, and single-character books, and input them into Anki (interval review software) for review. , roughly deducting 1,000 N2 words that may have been repeated, and there are also more than 4,000 new words. However, when I actually took the test, I found that these 4,000-odd words at most have a little advantage in words and vocabulary, and they are not very helpful in the entire test. In general, at the beginning, you must grasp a certain range of word size for different test exams to be familiar with. (Extended video: Why not memorize single words?)

2. There are limitations in the design of the questions, and there are good or bad forms of proficient questions.

The design of the questions for each language test is actually similar, because trying to cover several elements such as strength discrimination, score quantification, language characteristics (for example: multiple-choice questions in the daily test), time allocation, etc., will result in a limited form of questions. Yes , candidates can take time to get used to the question types and speed up their response to the questions. Sometimes you are familiar with the topic, and as soon as you read the topic, you can accurately find clues in the article. For example, in TOEIC's e-mail reading question, because of the results of a lot of practice, the content can be deduced immediately based on the format of the letter and a few keywords. Or there is a big question in the daily inspection about the order of words in a sentence. Because the grammar has a certain format, plus a lot of practice, sometimes when you finish reading the question, the order of the answers will instantly come to your mind. The design of these displayed questions is unlikely to be imaginative. In other words, there is still a "scope". Once you spend a lot of time familiarizing yourself with it, you can improve your answering speed. Some questions even require answers to match their design, such as non-question answers. You can't simulate both.

3. Time management: "It's not that I can't, I just didn't finish it."

This is a classic sentence for all exams, big and small, so the countermeasure sentence is derived: "It is better to guess randomly than to be blank". I have to admit that these two sentences have been in the examination room for several years, and they have become new with time, and sometimes they are still difficult to do. However, according to the experience of many people, there is not enough time to answer, and the number of remaining questions after guessing is more than the blank. So if you don't have enough time left to answer seriously, just guess! You're welcome!

However, before you go to the examination room, you must practice several times to calculate the time and speed of your answering, and pay attention to which question types and which major questions will take how much time. For the two points mentioned above, the number of words and the familiarity of the question type will also help you improve your answering speed, but in terms of overall time allocation, if a question takes too long, you can categorically choose the answer that you think may be right, or Skip to the next question directly, and then use the remaining time to answer carefully, so that you can spend most of your time on easy-to-answer questions, improve the overall answering speed, and shorten the answering time. Here I provide a coup. When you start to do reading questions, skip directly to the back to do a few long-term readings, and use you who are in good shape at the beginning to answer difficult questions . Since then, after being devastated by different topics, it is still good to do long reading with poor spirits. After the long reading has been resolved, you can jump back to the beginning and start from scratch, and when the exam time is almost over, there will be no time pressure for the long reading to be completed.

4. Taking the distribution ratio and giving up some questions will not affect the test results or pass or fail.

Almost all paper-and-pencil exams have a distribution system, and language proficiency exams are no exception. Therefore, there will be strong and weak points for those who answer, so it is important to adjust the proportion of answers so that the total score reaches their ideal score. Taking myself as an example, when I applied for N2, I regarded listening as a weakness and put my main focus on the reading test. I still remember that in the qualifying exam, when I took the listening test, I was distracted by the thunder because of thunderstorms in the afternoon. However, although I passed the exam, it also made me devote more time and effort in order to make up for this "lucky" in the next stage of the exam. In general, when time resources are limited, the ROI of the questions is important, as is the selection order of the answers.

5. The true nature of the verification test: memory recognition requires external cues.

In cognitive psychology, there is the so-called iron triangle of memory: review, recognition, and free recall . Review is simply using external things to repeat the practice, such as repeating the text repeatedly, listening to short text dialogues, etc. Recognition is to evoke a specific memory by prompting from external things, such as multiple-choice questions or option prompts for matching questions. Free recall is to explore one's inner memory, evoke memory, and find out the answer without relying on external things at all. The degree of memory effect of the three: free recall > recognition > review . The multiple-choice questions are becoming popular in the verification test, so in fact, many questions have option prompts, creating a word that you seem to know, but it is easy to happen. When you need to use this word in real life, you also think about it. The predicament of not getting up. (Extended Video: Memory Links in Language Learning) Conversely, the benefits are

You don't have to be very familiar with certain words, you can take the test with an impression.

That is to say, with a large number of prompts for the vocabulary of the test questions and reading content, in fact, you can understand a lot of content by piecing together, and finally answer by matching answer options. Some questions do not require familiarity, and you can answer with an impression. In the listening questions, the tone of the answer options is also one of the prompts. This phenomenon is particularly obvious in the Japanese test. Even if you don't understand the pronunciation of Chinese characters, for Chinese people, the Chinese characters in the whole article can probably be "hopeful." But we know that the real world doesn't work that way, but a third way: free recall . When you're short on words, no one will give you three word options next to you to make the conversation go smoothly. Instead, it is necessary to extract the vocabulary memory in the brain to match the corresponding situation. In fact, free recall is also an efficient way to strengthen the neuron connections in the brain . I will explain it in detail in my video later. Therefore, the popular test exams that use a lot of "recognition" skills will not help your language ability, but it can be a help to supervise your language learning. Finally, in my " 10 Feel-Good Language Learning Methods! (Part 1) " video, I mentioned these three forms of memory in a little more depth. If you are interested, you can click to watch it.

Looking at it, the above points continue to point out that the exam has a range . You can pass the exam with strategies, archeology questions, and mock exams. However, some people still feel that the exam is difficult and difficult to overcome. A few years ago, I knew that during the N1 exam, some of my classmates were interested in Japanese, but they were only beginners, so they told me that she wanted to sign up for N1. I didn't even dare to think about it at the time, I just took Japanese as an interest, and there was no exam requirement. To this day, after continuous "trial and error", people who find it difficult are just because their mentality, concepts and methods are not in line with the brain's learning operation ( Extended reading : The so-called linguistic concept is more important than learning the language itself.) , about I will also discuss these slowly in my videos. And now, I am facing the real language ability, looking for an efficient language method in the post-test world of "passed, then what?", for this I am learning other languages (German, Korean) (extension ) Video: I'm learning German again!).

Now let's talk about real language skills. This is a big question, and it is difficult to cover it in a few points like the above description of the test. I think my videos and articles so far have covered this topic. Therefore, the content comparison of language ability in this article will be discussed with the other side of the verification test. As mentioned above, the cultivation of language ability depends on a long process. The accumulation of any practice or learning pattern will become part of your language ability as long as you persist and multiply over time. So here I will focus on the accumulation thing.

The meaning of the word accumulation represents the concept of "adding little by little". If you are already in a foreign language environment, such a form of accumulation is usually unknowing, because you must use the foreign language to deal with things every day. When using a foreign language, the focus is entirely on the event, and the language is usually acquired subconsciously . (Extended reading: Learning a language is a kind of life) But usually most people do not have a foreign language environment, so we must make time for foreign language learning. But I personally think that learning a foreign language should use fragmented time as much as possible. If you make time for it, it will become a traditional study. As a result, if you don’t study within the set time, you will easily put pressure on yourself, resulting in learning with a negative mood. not tall. Many study books have stated that in positive emotional learning, the learning effect will be doubled. Try to think about using a language in a foreign language environment, isn't it also using (=learning) the language at an indefinite period of time? Fragmented times are sometimes fixed: such as going to the toilet in the morning, taking the bus, or not: etc. Friends, resting during the trip, queuing, etc. This also tells your brain that language learning is not limited to the classroom or desk, and that the context of learning will help remember connections . As in my " 10 Feel-Good Language Learning Methods! (Part 1) " video, I talked about episodic memory and semantic memory in cognitive psychology. To put it simply, episodic memory is a specific event, such as eating a different food every morning, and what you eat is an episodic memory, while semantic memory is a description or definition that integrates the episodic memory and eats it every morning. different things, so these events together are called having breakfast . So if you have been learning foreign languages in the classroom, your brain will really think that foreign languages can only be used in the classroom, and when you want to use foreign languages in the real world, you will find that you have more than enough power. Moreover, learning from changing scenes has repeatedly reminded the brain that it is not only blackboards, desks and chairs, lecterns, school bags, and pencil boxes that can evoke the memory of words or sentences (Extended Video: Why We Difficulty Separating Grammar) . In the book "Supreme Learning Law" (Jared Cooney Hovis), an interesting case is raised in which one of the author's family elders has a stunt in his backyard. He would use a shovel on the turf, hit the golf ball, and aim it precisely into the incinerator in the distance. Many relatives and friends were amazed when they saw this stunt. Until one time, relatives and friends invited him to the real course and let him perform stunts again. As a result, 10 times with a shovel, he hit the ball down, but only 2 times on the green. Why, in the backyard, can hit the incinerator bucket the size of a manhole cover, but can't hit a green the size of a swimming pool on a formal golf course? The reason is the so-called context-dependent learning in psychology. ), that is to say

Where we learn, ultimately becomes part of what we learn.

Therefore, the reason why this elder behaved abnormally on the official golf course is that there is no backyard-like situational dependence on the golf course, and the various learning factors contained in it, his semantic memory may be "the object that hits the golf ball is a The ability to burn barrels and old shovels in the backyard." So once you change the scene, the stunt doesn't work.

Then there is the mentality, which has been described in the book "Unlocking the Brain," and studies have shown that a positive mentality promotes brain activity, which in turn increases learning. In terms of mentality, you must have a positive attitude and believe that you have already learned a language well. This is not to pretend, but to think from your heart: "As long as the method is right, I will progress step by step." Then throw away the concept of fractions and focus on practicality. This may sound logical, and it is the original intention of learning a language. However, under the highly competitive education system, most people are still unknowingly influenced by traditional concepts, and language learning is still in the "classroom". (Extended reading: Learning languages, self-study or tutoring? (Part 1)) Once you talk about language learning, you will think which textbook I want to study, how many words I have to memorize, which tests I have to pass, and how many hours I have to study courses, etc. These are all " pseudo-predictions " that seem to help you predict the future, but are not highly relevant to your real language ability. Due to space constraints, I will not discuss them one by one. However, under my years of wrong attempts, every once in a while, I will change the way of learning. No matter whether it is efficient or inefficient, I will try it, as if completing a puzzle, to find the best learning strategy for language learning. . In the early stage, the concepts were not understood, and they always learned in an inefficient way. Then suddenly, they came into contact with new concepts and changed their learning methods, which greatly increased their efficiency. But the interesting thing is, I will think, is the current method really effective, or is it based on the results of the previous inefficient method, so there is such a big improvement after using the efficient method? Then I suddenly figured out one thing:

If there is no previous inefficient continuous efforts, how can there be an opportunity to gradually switch to an efficient method!

That is to say, no matter how efficient the method I use is, if I don't keep learning, there is no such thing as constantly updating the method for improvement. No matter what the inefficient or efficient method is, multiplied by the brewing time, a certain learning effect will be achieved. So in order to develop real language ability, please tell yourself that you are not limited in form at the beginning (extended video: learning a language, starting from interest) , but strive to learn continuously, the interesting thing is that one day you start to feel that this language is very friendly, no longer Beginners of extraterrestrial script, because with continuous learning, the brain will start to establish more and more connections. Seeing this, some people may think that everyone wants to learn an efficient way and doesn't want to waste time! I... (smiling), in fact, many efficient ways are counter-intuitive and contrary to traditional learning concepts. I have shared my methods with others several times, but unfortunately, most people are still too constrained by traditional educational concepts, and sometimes they cannot subvert their long-standing stereotypes at once. Take the study time as an example, language learning does not require you to sit at a desk for 1 or 2 hours at a time to study. According to the research of cognitive psychology, using distributed learning, a 15-20 minute focused study (or shorter) can be used. (Extended video: Do you really have no time to learn English? ), so many people still cannot accept it. It is difficult to shake the deep-rooted concept conversion at once. Some people need time, but the premise is that these people still walk on the road of language learning and have not given up. Once a bottleneck is encountered, it will be a turning point in learning . Therefore, I will not erase the accumulation of strength brought to me by the inefficient methods in the past, because at that time, I thought that was the best method, and I still have learning results. Over time, the compound interest effect will naturally appear. . in short,

Continuous learning and accumulation is the core of language learning. (Extended video: How I started learning Japanese - never thought of giving up )

Then another question arises, how far should we progress?

I would say that there should be different goals from phase to phase. If it is a zero foundation, of course, try to get the pronunciation of the language first by yourself. After you succeed slowly, you will set to learn a few sentences of greetings and warmth. The book "Deliberate Practice" proposes three areas of learning: the comfort zone, the practice zone, and the panic zone . The first and third pairs of study are either too easy to fall asleep, or too difficult to give up. Only by staying in the practice area and accepting challenges that are slightly harder than what they have learned will they continue to move forward on the track of progress. I met a lot of people to ask me about the method of learning English, many of them beginners. (Extended video: Beginner language is more important than quality) When I ask further, what is your goal, they always say: "I want to be able to speak, I can chat with foreigners." Or "I want to get To the TOEIC XXX points" For the time being, no matter how general and vague these statements are, but if such a goal is not divided down into a secondary goal, it will undoubtedly put oneself in the panic zone without realizing it, and challenge the devil. In this way, it is easy to compare the learning achievements of the current stage with this "Demon King" all the time, and then gradually feel out of reach and give up. Instead, learners must examine themselves to see if their current goals are just harder than they are if they want to stay in the practice area. In this way, psychologically, you will also think that you can successfully challenge, go all out, concentrate, and enter the so-called flow state. It's like a video game, you fail and start all over again. Every time you catch a little trick, you can concentrate on it at the moment, because you know from your heart that you can pass (or learn) yourself .

Well, this section seems to be a bit too long, and the concepts of language learning are described in many aspects, which are difficult to describe briefly. Just let me end it arbitrarily. Talking about the difference between exams and language ability, the most important thing is to let learners know that they should not confuse the two. Once they decide to start learning languages, they will have a clear strategy after setting clear goals. Planning and thinking about having language skills at the same time, this is a learning blind spot for many people, including myself in the past. But what's interesting is that it's possible to put it in reverse, " making a study plan for language ability, and thinking about passing the test at the same time ", you who can read this, you should understand, right?