It’s a widely acknowledged fact that English grammar is a subject that can elicit polarizing reactions from students – it’s either loved or loathed. Nevertheless, it remains an essential aspect of our education that we, as students, encounter throughout our academic tenure. No matter the grade you are in or the level of class you are taking, we all have to increase our diction, and there is one studying tool in particular that has been used more than the rest.
This tool, Membean, is what the article will be all about. Membean, overall, is a pretty controversial topic amongst the student body. Do the positives outweigh the negatives? Who knows. In this article, we will explore the various ways in which Membean can be beneficial, as well as some of its limitations when used in a school setting. So, let’s determine if Membean is truly worth the amount of use in our school curriculum today.
Before talking about if Membean is good or not, we will have to first describe what it is, and how it is used. Membean as a vocabulary tool is very well-thought-out in how it can help students acquire a vast amount of knowledge, based on word choice. The premise of Membean is to give a timed session in which students will answer questions such as fill in the blank, word association, definitions of roots, and a few others. Each type of question has varying levels of difficulty, with the fill in the blanks involving multiple choice being rather easy, whereas the typing version of the same question is much more difficult. After each session, Membean will assess if you have properly learned a word and take it out of your sessions if it is considered mastered, to some degree. After completing a certain amount of words, you will move up in levels, with most high school students being around the 2-3 level mark. Membean as well has other ways of testing students other than just sessions through a more traditional test. A teacher is able to set question types, and you will fill them out according to the level mark that you are at, and the current vocabulary terms you have learned.
Now that we have properly outlined what Membean is, let’s talk about its efficacy. For this section, we will be going over three main criteria for evaluating whether Membean truly is doing what it was made to do. The three are as follows: effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition, adaptive learning and personalization, as well as engagement and motivation.
Membean as it pertains to effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition is very important to how the website actually functions. As it is an easy tool to pick up and just start using right away, the ability to get into learning new words is not difficult. In reviews about Membean one student stated that, “I really do enjoy using it, and it does its job well. It’s incredibly easy to learn from it.” with which he gave Membean a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Many students would agree with this opinion on Membean however they might question the enjoyment part of it. The overall vocabulary acquisition is quite easy to retain, and they feed you words at a fairly constant rate as to not overwhelm or underwhelm you with the amount of vocabulary in circulation. This makes it a lot easier to focus in on specific vocabulary and continually work at figuring out the nuances of the words and deriving for yourself what Membean considers those words to mean.
However, Membean has one major flaw, and that is the fact that Membean is assigned based on amount of time completed rather than accuracy of question completed. For many, including St. Eds students, the amount of time needed to complete the assignment becomes annoying for lack of better words. The fact that it is a timed session means that it does not promote right answers and progressive learning, rather an experience based upon just waiting till the time limit is over. Membean as a concept for language acquisition is great, and the vocabulary aspect is also very helpful, however the functions and usability of the site make it tougher for students to actively learn new words. For this reason, we are going to give it a 6.5 out of 10 for this specific criteria.
The next main component of Membean that needs to be assessed is its adaptive learning and personalization. The personalization of Membean is quite tailored to students and their current vocabulary levels. At the beginning when you first log onto Membean you are given a set of words that you can mark if you know them or not. Membean will then place you in one of the levels depending upon which words you knew. This allows for the user to be able to start at a comfortable level and not feel stressed not knowing the words.
Membean is also top-notch in that the vocabulary you are learning is easily applicable to other reading sources. To explain this further, most texts have recommended vocabulary level depending on the difficulty of words and language used in the document. Membean is a good site because it accounts for this and allows you to understand words at higher levels, allowing you to comprehend tougher texts. Membean also from the point of view of the teacher is very adaptable as it allows teachers to give different types of vocabulary assignments as well as timed requirements and amount of days needed. Due to this site being very versatile and personalized to the person using it, we will give this criteria a 9/10.
The final way that we will be assessing Membean on is its engagement and motivation. Membean as a whole is a great site, but in the engagement and motivation section is where it falls short. For many students, Membean is more of a remedial task that does not allot them much in comparison to how much time they are putting in. This is because they are not engaged in the practice itself. Usually when doing a Membean session, one will not be entirely focused on it, and rather watching something to the side or listening to music that usually distracts them. Membean also with its varied questions and time limits on questions makes it so that the student takes longer on the early questions which are often multiple choice. These questions are typically the easiest, meaning that students will take their full amount of time per question on these, as to allow them to not get to a more challenging question.
This practice used by students directly correlates to the motivation students experience when participating in Membean. This was elicited after getting responses from students about Membean. From the first person I interviewed they gave Membean in this section a 0/10, but with a more biased opinion as they said, “I am unable to enjoy vocab practice no matter the site.” With a more conservative opinion of Membean another student rated this section 2/10, because they quote, “would not be doing it if it was not assigned.” These reviews show that going into Membean students are not exactly motivated to actively learn, and Membean does not do anything to help that situation. Based on this, we are going to rate this section as a 3/10, because it is not Membean’s fault that most students don’t particularly enjoy vocabulary practice.
To finish off this review of Membean and its use in school, we will conclude with rating it 6.25/10. The major reasons that Membean got this rating is because the site itself is really well done, and if you were actively trying to learn, then this site would help out tremendously. The problem lies in that Membean has a negative connotation amongst students, and going into sessions Membean does not really do anything to help this predicament. In summary Membean is a great site, just disliked for biased reasons amongst students making it not as effective as it could be in a school setting.
