How good is dialang

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sfuqua
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How good is dialang

Postby sfuqua » Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:23 pm

I'm too cheap and lazy to do a real CEFR test. :D
How accurate is Dialang? Is there a new version that is better than the old one?
Are there other free/cheap tests on the Internet that are better for French and Spanish?

This is completely for self motivation; I don't need to impress anyone except myself. :D

On other comprehension based tests, I have scored between A2 and C2 in Spanish over that past few years, which makes me think that they are not that accurate :lol:

I'm not sure if I would actually want to study for a tests; I am enjoying just reading mostly and listening to shows/audiobooks, so I would probably, but are there strategies that would help study for such a test? I would hate to complete 10000 pages of French, and then have the test tell me I'm an A1. That wouldn't impress myself at all. :lol:

I plan to take a test sometime in a few months after I finish some arbitrary number of pages read/ hours listened. :o
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby daegga » Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:49 pm

Varies quite a bit depending on language. French reading is far too easy, the Swedish one on the other hand asks you about newspaper categories (without presenting a text - so testing knowledge, not reading).
Danish listening gives you traditional songs with high pitch female voices (think catholic church choir) for C2 - that's like listening to opera, which I don't even manage in my native language. But otherwise the listening tests are reasonable.

https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/en/tcf
seems a bit more accurate for French
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby DaveAgain » Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:07 pm

sfuqua wrote:I'm too cheap and lazy to do a real CEFR test. :D
How accurate is Dialang? Is there a new version that is better than the old one?
Are there other free/cheap tests on the Internet that are better for French and Spanish?
For French TV5 Monde have a mock TCF (Test de Connaissance du Français).

EDIT
As Daegga has already pointed out above! :-)
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby rdearman » Fri Oct 15, 2021 3:41 pm

Try the defence language institute. Pretty accurate I would say. Iron Mike might have different ideas. :)

https://www.dliflc.edu/online-diagnosti ... sment-oda/
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby IronMike » Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:21 am

Definitely prefer the DLI assessment over the dialang.
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sfuqua
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby sfuqua » Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:45 am

I wonder if dialang Irish or Icelandic are any good...
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荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
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Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

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Re: How good is dialang

Postby BeaP » Wed Oct 20, 2021 7:28 am

In my opinion the only way to find out your CEFR level is to do a CEFR-aligned exam (DELE or DELF/DALF). You can find a test for both online for free, on their website. You can't grade your own speaking and writing, but you'll see how hard you find the tasks, and will get at least some information about the performance you'd probably have. If you have little time, you can do one task from the reading, and sometime later you can do the second, and so on.
It's rarely mentioned that CEFR test are closely linked to language school, high school and university education in Europe, and also very closely linked to the course books of the leading publishers. It is extremely hard to judge the language level of a student, and the CEFR system is not the best, but it's at least as detailed and precise as it can be. It tells the students what they need to know. The requirements for each level and for each language are clearly defined, and can be found in a CEFR-aligned course book. You can also check the level requirements on the Cervantes Institute's website.
However, if you don't want to take an exam, I really don't think you need to worry about this. CEFR exams don't and can't measure the real knowledge of a student, they are just better than nothing tools for situations when we must measure it somehow, like university entrance or job application. For most adult learners I think it's better if they concentrate on what they want to do with the language, and if they're able to do it or not. For example, if you go to France or Spain, can you communicate with the natives? Can you read books and newspapers?
Do you really need academic feedback, if you're not a student and don't want to apply for jobs?
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby sfuqua » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:21 pm

However, if you don't want to take an exam, I really don't think you need to worry about this. CEFR exams don't and can't measure the real knowledge of a student, they are just better than nothing tools for situations when we must measure it somehow, like university entrance or job application. For most adult learners I think it's better if they concentrate on what they want to do with the language, and if they're able to do it or not. For example, if you go to France or Spain, can you communicate with the natives? Can you read books and newspapers?


Wow, BeaP, is that good advice about the CEFR! :D I did no praparation and I took the dialang reading test, and was told in the beginning placement exercise that I have a strong vocabulary and probably read well, but that I may have trouble with listening. Cool, that sums me up pretty well. Then I took the actual reading test and scored a B1. Not so great,but the real revelation for me was that the CEFR did not test anything that I have been doing for the past 10 years in Spanish--it was not at all a test of novel reading or talking to random strangers. I would do better with a page from García-Márquez than I would do with a Spanish menu. :o
15% of the reading test questions involved reading menus, a perfectly fair thing to put on to a reading test of survival skills in Spain, but not at all what I was prepared for. To give you an example, there is, apparently, this stuff in Spain called, "paella". I bet everybody in Europe knows what it is. It doesn't come up in Latin American novels very much. It's not so big in our Mexican dominated restaurant world, although I do know that there is a Mexican version of it. I'm going to eat some for lunch. I will never forget paella again. :lol:

I checked our Assimil Spanish for some of the topics and words that gave me a hard time, and they were there, especially in the new Assimil edtions. I think I could greatly increase my score on dialang by doing some specific study on the topics involved. Anybody, especially Americans, who want to do anything with dialang or a real CEFR test need to do a lot of specific preparation to get a good score.
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荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

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Re: How good is dialang

Postby BeaP » Thu Oct 21, 2021 5:19 pm

Yes, you're absolutely right. The key of CEFR is in the course books. The best CEFR-aligned course books are the ones that are used in the language courses of the Cervantes Institute or Alliance Francaise. As far as I know, it'a Aula Internacional and Version Original or Défi. Up to B2 if you study a CEFR course book thoroughly with a good teacher, you'll pass the exam with flying colours. There is no question. Even C1 works the same way, but that requires general essay-writing and presentation skills as well. If you have them, after studying the book, no problem again. C2 is undoubtedly too vast to fit in a book.
I'm a little angry with Assimil, because they state on the cover that the programme takes you to B2, and it doesn't. Assimil is an alternative method, being different to classroom education is its core. The goal of Assimil is to make you be able to communicate, to use authentic materials early and take learning in your own hands, not to pass an exam. I know that writing B2 on the cover was a marketing necessity, but it's simply not true, and it goes against the original concept, which might be viewed as good or bad, but at least it's something different, a real alternative. CEFR coursebooks are cars that go on the highway, Assimil is a ship. You can't say that Assimil will take you to the same goal, because it uses a different track, as all alternative methods do.
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Re: How good is dialang

Postby luke » Thu Oct 21, 2021 6:14 pm

sfuqua wrote:To give you an example, there is, apparently, this stuff in Spain called, "paella". I bet everybody in Europe knows what it is. It doesn't come up in Latin American novels very much. It's not so big in our Mexican dominated restaurant world, although I do know that there is a Mexican version of it. I'm going to eat some for lunch. I will never forget paella again. :lol:

Quizás también sean esos cubanos. (maybe it's the Cubans too).

There's a good Cuban joint here and one of my co-worker's always gets the paella del mar.

Is that what you're having today? :)

Apparently there's nothing like it, although I prefer the bocadillas or the fish tacos.

But on topic, good to know that these tests may not always fit our individual situations.

BeaP wrote:I know that writing B2 on the cover was a marketing necessity, but it's simply not true, and it goes against the original concept, which might be viewed as good or bad, but at least it's something different, a real alternative.

Maybe part of Professor Arguelles lament over the decline of Assmil through the decades was the rise of Marketing.
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