Search results for 'tag:Learning English tag:TOEFL' matching tags 'Learning English' and 'TOEFL'

Argumentative paper! need help!! got a D on this!!!!!!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:11:26 GMT

Hello i am currently taking english class over the summer..

and having trouble with English paper,

since english is my second language, as though i thought i wrote okay but

the professor gave me a D for this paper..

i don't understand its english 101 class and got a D for unclearity and lack of

explanations. and he said i need polish my punctuation which i don't know

what the hell it is, also i am too wordy?.... please guys help me to get an A.

here it is...

Even though its unfairness has been suggested from various points of views, the standardized tests in the United States have been used for college admission for almost 100 years. This problem-causing standardized test, the SAT, is also known as Scholastic Aptitude Test. The intended primary purpose of this test is to be a faculty instrument to predict the success of students in college. Also, the SAT is considered a measuring tool to gauge the level of studentsâ reading and mathematic comprehension. Carl Brigham, who developed the SAT as an intelligence test for the use in college admissions, once had said âthe SAT testing system ignored factors such as schooling, family background, and familiarity with Englishâ (Fleming). According to this statement, the SATs must be used as a fair source to test students because not only it affects college admission for students, but also for equalities for all test takers. Regarding the recent scholastic suggestions indicating the disadvantages that are followed by gender, minority groups, and misusage of the test materials, the SAT should not be used as a strong determining factor for the college admission.

One of the factors that results disadvantage of the SAT is gender of the test takers. It is universally known that the learning and problem approaching method significantly varies on gender. The SAT test is disregarding these facts because both genders get the same tests and be tested on it. Not surprisingly, few private schools have accepted theses facts anaccepting only one gender students . Based on the statistics from 270,000 students, Dr. Ken Rowe, Australian Council for Educational Research, found that both boys and girls performed between 15 and 22 percentile points higher on standardized tests when they went to single sexed high school (Rowe). This data proves that applying different teaching systems to different genders has led to better performance of students. McCullough, researcher at University of Wisconsin-Stout, also suggested that males are more intuitive, indirect, and abstract learners whereas females are more organized and analytical learners (McCullough). Therefore, each gender requires different learning approach system. And these characteristics in each gender should be carefully considered before giving out the tests and used as college admission.

In fact, an article titled âUnderprediction of Female Performance from Standardized Knowledge Testsâ states that there is an inaccurate prediction on the femalesâ performance in their freshmen year in colleges. It informs even though the femalesâ SAT scores are lower than malesâ by about 34 points on each section, the femalesâ have higher average grade points in their freshmen years of college (Poole). This suggests that the SAT is not well-structured enough to address the differences in gender learning process to represent the performance of female students in colleges. This male-favoring biased test should be corrected for better precision in determining the performance level of students in colleges. More specifically, the questions on the SATs should be changed to more analytical and organized questions for females while questions where intuitive thinking is required should be given out to male. Therefore, by gender, the test takers should get different SAT test in order to achieve its purpose.

Disadvantages of minority groups should also be considered as a factor of unfairness of SATs. The minority, African American, Hispanic, and Asian immigrants, score significantly lower than white students. Especially, on the verbal section on the SAT which tests college level vocabulary and reading comprehension. This section of the SATs is more disadvantageous for students whose English is not their first language. Also, The National Center for Fair & Open Testing found that even for bilingual students whose first language was English, the SAT inaccurately predicted college performance (FairTest). Although there is a replacement test for verbal section called âTOEFLâ which stands for âTest of English as a Foreign Languageâ. It does not entirely compensate the verbal section and represent the performance of the students. The TOEFL, also refers as English proficiency test, does not test college level of vocabulary and reading level, but it tests studentsâ capability of learning English. Therefore, with TOEFL, the performance of high school students further in college can not be predicted and used. Moreover, it costs about 4 to 5 times more than the SATs which causes to minimize the test attempts, and this factor also can not be ignored from the unfairness of the SAT. Also, the Rigidity usage of the SAT for college admission will automatically result in accepting less minority freshman classes (FairTest).

Everson and Michna, professors at Columbia University, have proposed that the family income influences on the score of the SATs. On the data titled as âObserved Relationship between Family Income & SAT Scores:â indicates the proportioned relationship between the family income and the SAT scores of students. It also suggests that the SAT score of the child depends on the race of the family and interestingly the race of the family also correlates with the family income. In that data, a student from a white family with an income above $ 70,000 would score above 1008 points on the SATs, and a child from an African-American with an income of lower than $ 10,000 would score below 675 points on the SATs (Everson and Michna). This statistic implies that the income of the parents directly affects the SAT scores of their children rather than their intellect. Since the income and class of the parents is usually determined by the educational level of parents, this could be interpreted as the SAT is designed and favors the students with highly educated parents. Therefore, based on the statistics, the SAT has preferential of certain ethnic race and higher income and educational level of parents.

In addition to those disadvantages, the SAT prep courses or materials are misused in various ways which violate the intended purpose of the SAT. Even though most colleges say that the college does not have specific cut-off lines of SAT scores for accepting students, there are an increasing number of students who are studying for the SATs only for higher scores. This is resulted from the common misconception from people that the comparative schools only accept the higher SAT scores and reject lower SAT scores (FairTest). McEntire, a researcher, had proposed a flaw of the SATs because 2 to 3 months of quick preparation of the SAT will significantly raise the scores. Therefore, those scores lack the relevance of the prediction of the studentsâ performance in colleges. Numerous test preparation materials are now on every book stores and even certain institutions are built solely in order to teach SATs. Even if the costs are up to $800-1000, parents are promoting students to attend SAT prep course (McEntire).

The Flaws along with illegal act upon taking SATs are abused globally, and this factor should be modified for a fair test. The following problem is time related disadvantages considering the fact that the SATs are given out to the students at the same time world widely. Therefore, students who took the test earlier in the one side of the earth provide information by posting the answers and discussing the problems on a certain website. This will give time differences for those who live in the other side of the earth and give pre-exposure to the test before taking the test. Not only this action is illegal and politically improper, but also raises the questions on the fairness of the SAT. Another abuse of the SAT can be suggested from the unjust time management. Because of the fact that the SAT also tests students time distributions for each problem, the SATs are should be taken in strict given time (Collegeboard). But few articles have reported the problems that were related to poor time management that results in giving extra times for students. Allen, a writer for home schooling, has proposed that the extra amount of time while taking SAT will improve the scores which disobey the purpose of the SAT (Allen). These time-related problems could be fixed by producing variety version of the tests, and also that test can be taken on computers which eliminate such disadvantageous factors.

Junior and Senior high school students are frantically studying to memorize SAT words and practice how quickly to apply mathematical theorems to the problems. Most upper classmen high school students undergo these rituals even though the SATs contain various flaws and unfairness factors. Regarding to previous discussions, those flaws are not appropriate enough to represent the potentials and abilities of studentsâ performance in their freshmen years in colleges. Even Testmakers acknowledge that high school grade-point average or class rank is the best predictors of first-year grades, despite the huge variation among high schools and courses (FairTest). Furthermore, the SATs should not be used as a definitive source for college admission. Itâs urgent for colleges to raise another valid standardized test which will eliminate such disadvantages and flaws. Such as for colleges not requiring the SAT scores from the students who falls in to top 20 percent could be a solution. And less concentration on the SAT scores, but put more weight on accepting students regarding their other curriculum such as leadership, activities, honor or awards, and GPAs would be an another solution. The current SAT materials are not apt to measure the studentsâ abilities of performance with those unfairness and disadvantages factors. Moreover, the SAT seemed it had lost its primary purpose of predicting the performance of the students, and what it actually stands for as Scholastic Aptitude Test.

thanks for reading this far but i am that frustrated for having freaking D.

you can email me with your revised version to wkawk2416@hotmail.com

or leave comments feel free to correct syntax + grammarical errors. thanks!

Iam going to the UK...........

Dubai77 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 17:32:08 GMT

hi everybody .... i have questions and hope u will answer me

Iam going to the uk for learning english next month and then join a university

my questions are :

1- how long it takes to be excellent in english language?( my english language is bad) ... i mean to be excellent in reading , writing , listening and speaking

2- can i pass the TOEFL and the ILETS tests in just one year ?

thanks in advans

Looking for a support of English learning

Vunguyen — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 17:29:48 GMT

Hello!

I am Vu, 27 years old. I come from Vietnam.

Now I live in Hochiminh City and work freelance in handicraft export.

I intend to attend a MBA course in USA in 2008. Therefore, I am learning English for TOEFL and GMAT examinations.

I love to make friend with native English speakers who can help me to learn English effectively. Fairly, I will help you to learn Vietnamese and culture also. Furthermore, if you want to do business in Vietnam, I am willing to support you in contact with suppliers and customers.

I hope that with my three-year-working-experice I will have a good cooperation with all of you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely

Vu Nguyen

How to thinking in English?

Leonart — Wed, 10 May 2006 10:30:21 GMT

Please tell how to thinking in english! at present, I can think in english but sometime I still think in my mother laguange. Someone told me: I can use an English to English dictionary to find out some word that I dont know. But when I read and try to think to understant a word in that dictionary, I still dont understand. and let me understand it, I have to open dictionary which expain in my native language. In other ways, please tell What can I do?

If I try to write English frequently, can it help me to improve my english speaking skill?

I need to learn English in shortest time - 3 month, it's enough to communicate with foreigner. My level is about TOEFL 400, please advise me a time-table to learn effectively. I can spend 6 hours for learning English each day.

Re: Toefl online course

Insider — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 06:45:26 GMT

I agree with Jonny23. TOEFL has its own assignments, if i can put it in this way. It checks your english language writing, speaking and reading skills. It doesn't teach you the language. In short, TOEFL is just the last step that should concern you in your target of learning english.

Re: 'second language learner ' and ' foreign language learner'

paco2004 — Wed, 04 May 2005 23:19:02 GMT

Hello Jacklong

I think you can use 'foreign language' as long as you stay in your country. You can use 'I'm learning a foreign language' to mean you are learning English. 'Foreign languages' itself is not so inadequate an expression as seen in the fact that 'TOEFL' stands for 'Tests of English as a Foreign Language'. I feel 'English as a Second Language' (=ESL) might be a notion getting prevailed rather recently. As you might know, in the United States, people are sensitive to any kind of discrimination. The word 'foreign' can mean 'strange'/'alien in characters' along with 'coming from another country'. My guess is this would be the reason why Americans prefer ESL to EFL. If you like to be Americanized in any aspects of your thought, you can use 'English as a second language', but I don't like to be so. I'll use rather 'English as a foreign language'. One reason for it is I am here in Japan and the other reason is I feel English is indeed truly foreign to me, a native Japanese speaker, in its grammar as well as in its vocabulary.

paco

Re: As if

paco2004 — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 01:33:15 GMT

Hello people

I don't like to talk much about the subjunctive stuffs because it sounds difficult to find agreement between 'prescriptivists' and 'descriptivists'. (But I would like to say that, if I were a young ESL student, I certainly would choose prescriptivists as my English teachers because, for such students, one of the purposes of learning English grammar is surely to get higher scores in tests like TOEFL.)

Anyway I am not writing this to make an argument of that kind. I am writing it just to confirm one of the things about as if constructs, which I vaguely remember I learned in school days.

That is;
The main clause tense doesn't syntactically affect on the as if clause tense. (Of course, though, the main clause tense affects on interpreting the time that the event stated in the as if clause is fictitiously supposed to take place at.)
(1) He treats her as if she were his partner. [In fact she is not his partner]
(2) He treated her as if she were his partner. [In fact she was not his partner at the time]
(3) He treats her as if she had been his partner. [In fact she's never been his partner]
(4) He treated her as if she had been his partner. [In fact she hadn't been his partner before then]

Do you think this understanding is right in view from prescriptive grammar?

paco

Re: Please help with my motivation letter

anon1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:18:16 GMT

Dear Sir or Madam:

With this letter, I would like to express my interest in participating at The International School of English (ISE) by the University of Malta.

Having looked through the materials of the Foreign Department of my university, I was very delighted to find the opportunity to spend one month learning English at the University of Malta in this summer. I have decided to apply for this scholarship because the best way to learn a foreign language is to spend time in learning in a foreign country.

After graduating from high school I started studying at *SmartyPants* University in *Prague*. I have always enjoyed traveling and meeting people and learning their languages. By learning the language of the host country, I am able to learn more about the country than I otherwise could. Therefore I decided to take Regional Geography Programme specializing in European Union Studies. My studies are based on experiencing and learning about different cultures. And as the EU countries are at the focus of my lessons, learning about Malta and its language, culture, and people is an essential part of my university studies. [It has been tuned somewhat. This is reasonably good, no?]

I am proud of how much I have accomplished during my past ten years of studying English. Three years ago I successfully passed the FCE Cambridge Examination. But in order to become much better, I need to spend time in an English speaking country. In addition to learning English, I have also been learning German and Hungarian. Concerning Hungarian I was lucky to spend two summers in Hungary attending University Courses. I found that I was able to learn better by residing in the country, and I greatly appreciated the cultural experience because it inspired me to continue learning and improve my skills.

I would very much like to spend one month at the ISE in Malta. This would give me an opportunity to improve my English and increase my confidence in passing the TOEFL examinations after I return. I plan to apply for a scholarship through the SOCRATES â ERASMUS programme. Moreover, I am confident that my experience in Malta would be extremely exciting, fun, and valuable for both my studies and overall general development.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to your acceptance.

Yours faithfully,

Jana XZ

Just check whether they spell âprogramâ or âprogrammeâ. I will ask someone from Malta to have a look at your letter. Check back in a few hours or tomorrow.

MountainHiker

Re: Please help with my motivation letter

jjjana — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:49:56 GMT

Hello,
I have made rather minor changes following most of your advices. I really like your corrections and improvements, they exactly fit into my general idea. I would appreciate if you could look at it once more. Thank you.

Dear Sir or Madam:

With this letter, I would like to express my interest in participating at The International School of English (ISE) by the University of Malta.

Having looked through the materials of the Foreign Department of my university, I was very delighted to find the opportunity to spend one month learning English at the University of Malta in this summer. [I know this sounds weird, but it is exactly how it was] I have decided to apply for this scholarship because the best way to learn a foreign language is to spend time in learning in a foreign country.

After graduating from high school I started studying at *SmartyPants* University in *Prague*. I have always enjoyed traveling and meeting people and learning their languages. By learning the language of the host country, I learn more about the country than I otherwise would. Therefore I decided to take Regional Geography Programme specializing in European Union Studies. My studies are based on experiencing and learning about different culture backgrounds. And as the EU countries are at the focus of my lessons, learning about Malta, Maltese language, culture and its people is an essential part of my university studies. [This still needs improvement]

I am proud of how much I have accomplished during my past ten years of studying English. Three years ago I successfully passed the FCE Cambridge Examination. In order to become much better, I need to spend time in an English speaking country. In addition to English, I have also been learning German and Hungarian. Concerning Hungarian I was lucky to spend two summmers in Hungary attending University Courses of the language. I found that I was able to learn better residing in the country and I greatly appreciated the cultural experience because it gave me a unique motivation for further improvement in language.

I would very much like to spend one month at the ISE in Malta. This would give me an opportunity to improve my English and increase my confidence in passing the TOEFL examinations after I return. I plan to apply for a scholarship through the SOCRATES â ERASMUS programme. Moreover, I am confident that my experience in Malta would be extremely exciting, fun, and valuable for both my studies and general development.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to your acceptance.

Yours faithfully,

Jana XZ

ps.
Thanks very much for your hitherto help! I am sad that I can not reciprocate this service. I am affraid that there are not many foreigners who need help with letters in Czech
But I promise, in case I am accepted, I will let you know. And I am sure I will use this forum in future.

Jana

Re: Please help with my motivation letter

anon1 — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 02:47:49 GMT

Dear Sir or Madam:

With this letter, I would like to express my interest in participating at The International School of English (ISE) by the University of Malta. [Do you want to apply?...I am applying for a _________at the International School of English (ISE) by the University of Malta.]

Having looked through the materials of the Foreign Department of my university, I was very delighted to find the opportunity to spend one month learning English at the University of Malta in this summer. I have decided to apply for this scholarship because the best way to learn a foreign language is to spend time in learning in a foreign country.

After graduating from high school I started studying at *SmartyPants* University in *Prague*. I have always enjoyed traveling and meeting people and learning their languages. By learning the language of the host country, I learn more about the country than I otherwise would. Therefore I decided *to study/take* Regional Geography *Program?*specializing in European Union Studies. This branch [not sure I understand âbranchâ] is based on experiencing and learning about different culture backgrounds. That is why learning about Malta (as a new EU country), Maltese language, culture and its people is an essential part of my university studies.

I am proud of how much I have accomplished during my past ten years of studying English. Three years ago I successfully passed the FCE Cambridge Examination. In order to become much better, I need to spend time in an English speaking country. In addition to English, I have also been learning German and Hungarian. Through University Courses of Hungarian, I have spent two *semesters/summers* in Hungary. I found that I was able to learn better residing in the country and I greatly appreciated the cultural experience because *blah blah blah*.

I would very much like to spend one month at the ISE in Malta. This would give me an opportunity to improve my English and increase my confidence in passing the TOEFL examinations after I return. I plan to apply for a scholarship through the SOCRATES â ERASMUS programme. Moreover, I am confident that my experience in Malta would be extremely exciting, fun, and valuable for both my studies and general development.

Thank you for considering my request. I am look forward to your acceptance.

Yours faithfully,

Jana XZ

Overall, we done. I have fixed some of the obvious errors. And I have made the letter sound more confident. Your English skills are good, though more exposure would be helpful. If you want to revise and post your letter again, please do.