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An Introduction to MYLE
- 1. An Overview for Teachers & Parents
- 2. Michigan Language Assessment helps people achieve their education and career goals by providing trusted English language exams. Who We Are Michigan Language Assessment is a not-for- profit collaboration between the University of Michigan and Cambridge Assessment English, two institutions with long and distinguished histories in the field of language assessment.
- 3. A fun and motivating way to show English proficiency for ages 6-12 ©2018 Cambridge Michigan Language Assessment The Michigan Young Learners English, or MYLE tests, are a series of activity-based English language tests specially designed for children. Schools all over the world use these tests to motivate children to learn English, and show their parents and teachers the progress they are making. CEFR Levels:
- 4. Introduction to the MYLE Tests • What are Bronze, Silver, and Gold? • How are results reported? • Support and preparation materials • Questions
- 5. About MYLE
- 6. About MYLE Designed for Children
- 7. Latest Developments • Keep Bronze, Silver, and Gold relevant to the evolving needs of learners and schools. • Incorporate evolving approaches to best practice for teaching and assessing Bronze, Silver, and Gold. • Ensure there is a clear path from Bronze, Silver, and Gold to other Michigan Tests for secondary schools and beyond.
- 8. How Long are the Tests? Bronze Silver Gold Listening 20 mins 25 mins 25 mins Reading & Writing 20 mins 30 mins 40 mins Speaking 3–5 mins 5–7 mins 7–9 mins
- 9. Listening
- 10. Reading Writing
- 11. Speaking
- 12. Speaking Trained examiners ensure a fair assessment Examiner can offer support to ensure the test isn’t threatening. The focus is on the child showing what they know and not on judging them.
- 13. Reading Writing
- 14. Speaking
- 15. Reading Writing
- 16. Bronze Silver Gold 497 898 1,411 Number of Words in Each List MYLE Preparation Materials
- 17. How Are Results Reported?
- 20. Support and Preparation Materials
- 21. Information for Candidates and Parents Sample Tests Help your Child Learn English booklet for parents Free Support & Preparation Materials Language learning games on our parent site.
Editor's Notes
- The Bronze, Silver, and Gold Exams are for children in primary and lower secondary schools who are at the beginning of their English language learning journey. The MYLE tests are part of a range of exams for school-aged learners known as The Michigan Tests that take learners step by step through the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), which go from Pre-A1 (beginner level) to C2 (very advanced). The CEFR is an international framework that is used to describe what learners can do at the different levels. The Bronze, Silver, and Gold tests cover levels Pre-A1–A2 of the CEFR – these are the first steps on the language learning journey.
- Bronze, Silver, and Gold were first launched in the 1990s by Cambridge Assessment English and were designed for children aged 7–12. Since they were first launched the tests have included the following key features: They use colourful and fun activities that motivate learners and reflect sound teaching methodology. There is no pass or fail so the tests aren’t threatening, and every child receives a certificate that rewards their achievement. The tests cover the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, which ensures that class time is spent on developing all the skills that children need in the real world – not just grammar and vocabulary but also communication skills. There is a step-by-step progression through the levels – building skills at each level. There is a wide range of support materials available—all materials developed for the Cambridge YLE tests can be used to prepare for the Michigan MYLE tests! These points are still relevant today and the tests still include all these key features!
- As part of Michigan Language Assessment’s on-going commitment to improving the quality of our tests, they are regularly reviewed. The latest revision to the MYLE went into effect January 2018. This process helps to ensure the tests remain relevant to learners and schools. We also want to ensure that the exams take into account the latest thinking in teaching and assessment for young learners and the exams are underpinned by extensive research in this area. Another driver for the revision was to ensure a clear progression from MYLE to our exams for secondary school and beyond.
- Each exam has three parts: Listening, Reading & Writing, and Speaking. This chart shows how long test takers spend on each part at each level. Note the progression as learners work through the levels, reflecting the development in their English skills and the fact that older children are able to concentrate for longer.
- Let’s now look at some of the tasks from the tests to get a better idea of what children do in the tests and what this means in terms of their English learning. In this task from the Bronze Listening section, children listen and identify who is who in the picture, and draw a line from the name to the person. Example: Child: “Here’s a photo of me and my friends in the park, Miss Box.” Teacher: “Oh yes! Who’s that? The boy with the cats.” Child: “His name’s Pat. He’s holding one cat in his arms! Pat loves animals.” Learners have to listen for words and prepositions (e.g. boy, cat, in, arms). They hear each recording twice.
- In this task from the Bronze Reading & Writing section, children see a semi-factual text like this one, which is about lizards. They have to fill in the gaps with the right word from the words in the box. As you can see, they get visual support to help them. This task adds a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) element to the exam, which helps learners to use English in learning about other subjects, and helps to build the skills they need for the real world.
- In this task in the Bronze Speaking test, test takers see a picture, like this one of a family in their kitchen. The examiner asks the child to point out certain items on the scene picture, e.g. “Where’s the door?’” The examiner then asks the child to put two object cards in various locations on the scene picture, e.g. “Put the robot on the red chair.” The examiner asks questions about two of the people or things in the scene picture, e.g. “What’s this?” (Answer: banana) “What colour is it?” (Answer: yellow). The examiner also asks the child to describe an object from the scene, e.g. “Tell me about this box.” Support will be provided for any test takers who need it through prompts such as “What colour is it?”/”Is it blue?” Expected responses are no more than “Blue” or “It’s blue”.
- Speaking examiners are often primary teachers. They are well trained to ensure each child is assessed fairly but the examiner can offer help and encouragement to ensure that the Speaking test is not threatening. The focus is on the child showing what they know and not on judging them. At this age, children have limited interactional skills so the test is conducted with one child and one examiner. Each child is taken into the test by an usher. This is someone who speaks the test taker’s first language and may be known to the child. The usher explains the test format in the child’s first language before the test starts.
- In the Silver Reading & Writing section, the tasks are ordered so that easier tasks are at the beginning of the test. This is based on research into task performance to identify which tasks were easiest, so that the test gradually becomes more challenging, but remains at the appropriate level as the children work through the test. In this task from the Silver Reading & Writing section, children have to first complete two sentences about the picture, then answer two questions and finally write two additional sentences of their own based on what they can see in the picture. The task has been developed and trialled extensively, and provides children with a great deal of support and scaffolding at the beginning before moving to more open-ended responses.
- In this task from Silver Speaking, the child is given a story in pictures which they have to describe. The title of the story, ‘Fred loves food’, is given, as is the name of the main character, Fred. Stories are used in Bronze, Silver, and Gold MYLE tests as they reflect the fact that children love reading and telling stories, and they often do this in English classes at school. It is something that family can help them practise at home too.
- This is another story task – this time from the Gold Reading & Writing section. The child sees three pictures and writes a story about them. This task gives children the opportunity to produce written language through a fun and age-appropriate task.
- For each exam (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) there is a word list, which you can find on MichiganAssessment.org. These lists can be downloaded and used to practise vocabulary at home. The table here shows the total number of words at each level. At Silver level, learners are expected to know the words at Bronze level, plus new ones, while at Gold level, they will already know the Bronze and Silver words and be introduced to new ones. We use research to help decide which words are on the word lists, to include words which children produce naturally and to reflect changes in language use. For example, for the 2018 revisions, we added words such as tablet and e-book. Michigan’s partner Cambridge University Press has produced a series of books called Storyfun, each with eight stories that can be used to help prepare children for test tasks. It also includes a Home Fun booklet for each level, which helps bridge the gap between home and school and involves parents in their child’s learning.
- When we carried out market research about revising the exams, teachers and parents told us they like the way the results are reported. There is no pass or fail in Bronze, Silver, and Gold MYLE tests and every child taking the test gets a certificate, recognising their achievement and making the test a non-threatening experience. Results for Bronze, Silver, and Gold are reported in terms of medals – there is a maximum of five medals for each skill (reading and writing, listening and speaking). From 2018, we added some information to the back of the certificate – you can see this on the right-hand side. There are two parts: the first is the diagram at the top, which shows what medals at Bronze, Silver, and Gold mean in relation to each other, and how the tests match up on the CEFR. Below this table, you can see Can Do statements for each of the levels, to help interpret what it means to be at each of those levels.
- CEFR levels are described in Can Do statements. Here we see examples of what young learners at different levels can do. Can Do statements cover the key skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking. They can do statements also help to show how a child is developing their skills as they progress through the levels. For example, at Bronze level, children can write or copy words and short sentences. By Gold level, they can write short simple stories, with the help of pictures. They can also link their sentences with connectors, such as “and, because, then.”
- It is important that learners feel confident when taking the exam, so we have a range of support materials to help them prepare well. We’ve already seen some of these resources (such as Speaking test videos, word lists, and picture books) but you can also find free sample tests, Information for Candidates and Parents booklet and a booklet with advice for parents on how to help your child learn English on our website. Another great free resource is the language learning games on our parent site, CambridgeEnglish.org.