The audio review isn’t testing my understanding of the language with every question, it seems to be mostly checking whether I have a hearing problem.
When I review, I don’t expect to be tested on how well I am capable of hearing, but instead how well I know what a spoken word (or written word) means. But the audio reviews won’t even accept the meaning of the word written in English. I have to write just simply what I have heard, with no understanding being checked at all.
This seems like a bug to me. Or am I missing something important?
I’m not sure this is a ‘bug’ as such. Are you saying that you want the listening skills function in Memrise Pro to include a typed translation test, because it doesn’t currently (or, at least, not in any courses I am taking)?
I was hoping, “listening skills” is not a Pro feature. I do have pro, but: given the creators add audio, it should be available as the creator wishes - iI do think every user has access to this feature?
Yes, isn’t it the case that non-Pro users will be able to simply hear the audio (in those courses where the creators have added it) but they will not get the three different types of listening skills tests that Pro users get?
If the link I included above doesn’t work for you, here is the description given (without the images):
"Listening Skills explained
← Memrise Pro
Listening Skills is a Pro function, to find out more about Memrise Pro read these articles!
When selecting the course you would like to learn or review, you will be presented with a number of different learning modes, such as ‘Learn’, ‘Review’, ‘Speed Review’, furthermore ‘Difficult Words’ and ‘Listening Skills’, which are both Premium learning modes.
Listening Skills is a fun way to practise your pronunciation and listening skills.
Listening skills will test you on your oral comprehension of all the words you have learnt so far in this specific course. It can be tapping, typing or multiple choice tests.
In the case of multiple choice tests learners have to listen to the pronunciation and then select the word they heard from the multiple choice options. Alternatively you will be presented with a word and by tapping on the sound icons you will have to select the right pronunciation for the displayed word.
When presented with a pronunciation you can also be prompted to type or tap in the word you hear."
In any case, I don’t think there is a test where you hear a word or phrase in the subject language and have to type the translation as your answer, if that’s what @Thisfox was looking for. At least, not in the Web version…
I am studying Finnish. I get the audio for “Koulu”. I know what this Finnish word is, so I type the english: School. It ignores that and waits for me to write “koulu”. I already know what it said, but it’s testing whether I can hear “koulu” instead of whether I know what “koulu” means. Why is it testing what I heard, instead of the meaning of the word?
Because the ‘listening skills’ test is testing you on your pronunciation and listening skills and not on your knowledge of the meaning of the word or phrase.
There is currently no test of learned words and phrases based on only hearing the word or phrase in the target language (without also seeing it written - as you do when first learning it) and being required to type the translation. As I said, we may get that in the future but it could be a long way off.
I guess that a course creator who doesn’t have pro would only be able to practice his or her listening skills by uploading audio files from Forvo or similar (if they haven’t drawn items from an existing database which already includes the audio). Then, when learning items, they would have to hover over the audio icon that appears on the learning page to hear the pronunciation. On tests, the audio file plays each time an answer is given.
On your second point, yes, I think what @Thisfox would like (using the example given) would be to have a test where you hear “koulu” (without seeing the translation) and are required to give the answer “school”. That would be a good thing for advanced students. Maybe someone from Memrise will see this and comment. But I think the intention of the current listening skills test is for the student to hear (and learn) the pronunciation of “koulu” and to type “koulu” (or select that word from multiple choice) to show that s/he has correctly recognised its’ pronunciation. The student will already have learned at an earlier stage that “koulu” is the Finnish word for “school”. So that is not what is being tested here.
I think one of the purposes of these listening tests is to make sure you understand the way the language is pronounced, and that you also know how to spell the given word. It might be easy in some languages, but there are other languages where the same pronunciation can be spelled in a variety of ways (french is a good example of that, but I guess japanese, korean and chinese are even better examples), or languages where the pronunciation is not obvious from the written form.
I’m not a pro user, but I guess these tests are meant to help you associate the spelling of the words with the correct pronunciation. This is already a lot of work for some languages.
Sadly, it is not testing my comprehension. Comprehension is the ability to read or hear something, process it, and understand its meaning. I am being tested on what it sounds like, but not on my comprehension of the word. For all I know, “koulu” means “cement mixer”, when I hear it in a reading test. I’m being tested on understanding a mechanical voice say something I don’t comprehend, but can, parrot-fashion, type back to the mechanical voice.
The conclusion I’ve come to is that the Pro membership I paid for is better spent on the “difficult words” section, and I will no longer use or enthuse about the listening test section. That’s fine: Memrise does have a lot of useful things going for it. But for me, until it tests my comprehension, the listening test isn’t useful to me.
OK. I guess that’s an advantage of the app version - you can choose to ignore the listening skills tests. I use the web version and there is no ‘opt-out’ there.
In the web version, you aren’t presented with a listening skills test for the first time until sometime after you have been through the initial learning cycle successfully. The thinking may be that by the time you are first presented with a listening skills test for “koulu”, you will already have learned that it means “school” and not “cement mixer” or whatever. That would make more sense.
I’m not sure if an incorrect answer to a listening skills test resets the SRS clock for the ‘non-listening skills tests’ for that particular word. I’ll try to check that out.
By the way, there may be a more appropriate category of the forum for this thread than “Web Bugs”. I’ll take a look later.
@alanh, if I understand what you’re saying, you can opt out of listening tests in the website. You just need to go into your profile on the main memrise setting and mark to not use listening tests.
It is actually the chosen session (the “Purple session”) of listening test which I am complaining about, not the general review session (the “blue session”).
I use all three: the web version, the android application, and the apple application. All three give me an option of doing a purple listening test, which I am no longer clicking on, because it is not testing my comprehension.
When you do a listening component in the blue general review session, it DOES test comprehension, so I have never seen the need to turn off that component.
@alanh, no to be argumentative, but if you’re a pro subscriber, then I think you should be able to do an audio test for courses in the web version, too, at least for some courses
the audio review does not function in several courses i’m taking; in two of my own courses, i’m constantly redirected back to the main page of the course
it is also not wroking in the blue HSK4 of Ben. In my own full audio courses it is still not functioning
The problem is in course not in test. Some courses are made so you only write what you hear. Others check your knowledge too. You have to know the meaning
