Technology for determining non-humanities university students' cognitive-and-psychological characteristics

Abstract

Objectives. The purpose of this work was to create a special entrance test for first-year students starting to learn a new foreign language. To achieve the research objective, the study analyzed data on testing language/linguistic proficiency and motivation for learning a foreign language. A range of test parameters identifying both abilities and motivation to learn a foreign language in general, but not related to learning a specific language, were highlighted. The identified parameters were used to inform a questionnaire tested on a group of students, whose level of abilities and motivation had already been ascertained. The findings about students were compared with the already known empirical data to support the improvement of test items.Methods. To describe a special entrance test for first-year students starting to learn a new foreign language in a non-humanities higher education institution, a test technology for identifying certain cognitive, psychological, intellectual, motivational characteristics of a student's language personality was created. The developed test parameters served as the basis for constructing several heterogeneous test blocks.Results. The initial version of the test obtained was verified by pilot testing first-semester-first-year students. Expert assessments of the foreign language potential learning on the part of students were used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the test. A subsequent correction of tasks and responses was carried out in light of the verification results.Conclusions. A recommendation to conduct this kind of testing prior to the first semester with the aim of forecasting the success of foreign-language educational activities of students enrolled in the foreign language study group from the “starter” level is formulated. The results of such diagnostics can be used to draw up personified adaptive training programs within the educational process.