Eiken Interview Practice

[coop52]

There's also a junior eiken with 3 levels for ES students. I don't know much about it, but quite a few of my kids have the top level.

[Jiggit]

It's really scary to think that kids take Eiken 3 at first year JHS and there are 2 more levels below that. They really need to reevaluate their staging....

I did pre2 practice with the 1st and 2nd grade and the 1st grade were a lot better. If that pattern holds you should get the 1st year JHS to take the 1kyu.

[Penguee]

There's also a junior eiken with 3 levels for ES students. I don't know much about it, but quite a few of my kids have the top level.

I heard it's kind of a joke. The kids sit there are color circles. The voice recording just says the color like eight times and the kids have to color. No idea if it's true or not.

It's really scary to think that kids take Eiken 3 at first year JHS and there are 2 more levels below that. They really need to reevaluate their staging....

Eiken has seven levels with 1 being the highest level. (Easiest level is 5 and it goes 5, 4, 3, pre-2, 2, pre-1, and 1.) Eiken level 3 is supposed to include all the grammar in JHS. Present perfect and conditional nouns and such.
We have an adult student who passed pre-1 after studying for two years. The interview is a ten minute debate about a social topic. She's an elementary school teacher.

[Gizmotech]

Where as I have 3 teachers who couldn't pass pre-2 if they tried.

The level system is completely unrelated to ability and is entirely based on knowledge of irrelevant data.

[Penguee]

Where as I have 3 teachers who couldn't pass pre-2 if they tried.

The level system is completely unrelated to ability and is entirely based on knowledge of irrelevant data.

I don' think that English vocab and grammar is related to irrelevant data, but to each their own.
I think that once students get to a higher level it's more beneficial for them to take TOEIC or something more recognized in the international community if they really insist on taking tests.

[webstaa]

Where as I have 3 teachers who couldn't pass pre-2 if they tried.

The level system is completely unrelated to ability and is entirely based on knowledge of irrelevant data.

It's nice that they have simple 'Can-DO' statements for each level. Until you realize that for a test, Can-DO is pretty much uselessly over-broad.

And the 1st years who have taken 3 all have to take at least level 4 first - so they don't go in blind. And to a man, they're all hardcore juku-junkies - they'll bring supplementary workbooks to school to work on them (not just English) during breaks (they have to be at their desks long before the bell rings anyways - school rules.)

[Gizmotech]

It's nice that they have simple 'Can-DO' statements for each level. Until you realize that for a test, Can-DO is pretty much uselessly over-broad.

And the 1st years who have taken 3 all have to take at least level 4 first - so they don't go in blind. And to a man, they're all hardcore juku-junkies - they'll bring supplementary workbooks to school to work on them (not just English) during breaks (they have to be at their desks long before the bell rings anyways - school rules.)

Which is why the Canadian Language Benchmarks, where we basically came up with the concept of Can-do, is like 300 pages covering 8 levels and 4 production areas.

[coop52]

And doesn't the Common European Framework have separate Can-do lists for each of the 4 skills? That way you don't get situations like what happens with the Eiken (and the JLPT, too, to some extent) where you have people who pass the tests but actually can't use the language to the level they supposedly have.

[Gizmotech]

You have Can-do lists but not as extensive as the Canadian ones. What's more important is you can't be considered a level without a certain mastery of all the skills at that level or a majority at level and only one level below. (another point where the Canadian 8 level system works better... more granularity)