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

Re: Want a pen friend

Le_huy_viet — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:28:16 GMT

Hi Mollie Anna

I received your post several days ago.

Nice to meet you, too.

My information: <email address removed by mod. Please add it to your profile only.> and i am a 21-year male student at a business university.

I am learning english and want to make friends who like speaking english.

I live in Hanoi capital in Vietname.

I am looking forward to your response

Best regards

Applying for scholar ship

SadeqMorshedloo — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:28:43 GMT

Hi everybody,
I should say this is one of the best websites I have ever encountered in this area.(Learning English).
Well I have written an application letter, but I know there is lots of errors,
so I would be glad if you have look at my essay and give me your comments,
Thank you all of you.

Aug 17 2008

Ms <Name Surname>

Awards and Scholarships Manager

British Council
<Address.>
<City, postal code, State>

Dear Ms. Ahmadi:

I am very interested in British Council, Chevening scholarships or any other financial assistance opportunities available for graduate students.

I have already finished my undergraduate studying in the course of petroleum engineering. I have graduated in Jul 2007 with a grade 17.7 of 20 (excellent) in the Iran university system. My major is Safety and Technical Inspection Engineering. To deepen my knowledge and to specialize in the field of Technical Inspection Engineering, I intend to do my Master of Engineering.

I am currently experiencing an educational period in the field of technical inspection and corrosion prevention at NIOC-OTC (National Iranian Oil Company-Oil Terminal Company) which has started in March 2008 and will last about 16 month. I have also finished two training periods, each of witch last about 2 months at the same company in Jul & Aug 2005 and Jul & Aug 2006.

My career goal is to work in an international company where this Master degree would be helpful. I am interested in traveling and getting to know different cultures and people from various countries around the world.

I am an open-minded and friendly person who is interested in international aspects and intercultural relations. Therefore, I would enjoy studying at UK universities which have a high proportion of international students. It is possible to get to know people from more than one country. Normally, this would require a world tour. Furthermore, I am keen on looking beyond my own nose to learn from other nationalities and cultures. Only personal experience can give you a real view of other cultures and behaviors.

Please send me the appropriate application and deadlines, including any other necessary information I would need to complete a proper application process with Chevening scholarships.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Sadeq Morshedloo

<contact info>

--

<EDITED by mod: please be careful about posting your and others' personal info.>

Headway series for Darfur refugees

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:26:39 GMT

I recently formed a nonprofit, Book Wish Foundation (www.bookwish.org), to provide reading relief for people in crisis. As part of our first project, we are fundraising to purchase the Headway English language series for teachers and students in the Bredjing and Treguine refugee camps in eastern Chad. The refugees from Darfur view learning English as a "road to freedom," partly because doing so might give them a chance to attend a university. They have self-organized English clubs in the camps -- in Bredjing alone, 400 students attend six nights a week (photos at the bottom of www.bookwish.org/gallery). Our goal is 70 studentâs books, 15 teacherâs books, 70 workbooks, and 30 accompanying CDs in each of the Basic, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, and Upper Intermediate levels of the Headway series.

I would be grateful for any suggestions of how to publicize or fundraise for this EFL material. If you want to donate through our site, please earmark your donation for Headway English language course material.

Thanks very much and best regards,

Logan Kleinwaks
President, Book Wish Foundation
logan AT b-o-o-k-w-i-s-h.org (remove -)

Comments on Motivation Letter asked

Claire* — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:15:48 GMT

Dear members,

I am a Dutch scholar in my exam year of grammar school. Upcoming Friday I need to have sent in all my application papers for university. I saw the excellent help offered by all of you to correct motivation letters and give advise. I just finished my motivation letter and I would like some comments on it. I am applying for a university which is very selective. It is an international orientated institute and offers broad education (I want to study litarature, political theory, business and maybe some law) It is very intensive studying and I will be living on campus if everything turns out okÃ© and I will be accepted. But... only one out of five scholars get the chance to be accepted. So I can use all help offered by getting the best motivation letter ever. The yellow gaps represent fitting words I did not just come up. (sorry for some Dutch but thats for translation)

One special thing: I find it quite difficult to limit myself to two pages so if you have any advise on what to delete in this text it would be great (it is too long)

My motivation letter:

Dear Sir/Madame,

Hereby I am applying for a place in the liberal arts programme at University College Utrecht for fall 2008, and in this letter I will elaborate on the reasons of my motivation and why I am perfectly fit for the concept.

My name is Claire. I am a sixth form student at the Koningin Wilhelmina College in Culemborg, I will be graduating from grammar school (Dutch: gymnasium) in June 2008.

I must say I like all my subjects and in particular English and Social Studies. I started learning English from a young age and it has always felt like my second language. Sometimes I feel I can express myself better in English than in Dutch, or at least more beautifully.

I enjoyed the fact that my (former) secondary school is rather innovative. In 2006 Bizzgames was introduced; a simulation of a business environment. This is an excellent way of putting management and organisation skills into practice. Consequence was I came in first as a two-person team with a student I did not know. On the one hand working after school did result in less active extracurricular activities, on the other hand I did learn to â¦

I know people see me as an open-minded, ambitious, passionate and hardworking student. Academically I am a critical thinker. I am almost always passionately interested in a subject Travelling is one of my enduring passions. It gives me an indescribable feeling boundlessness.

From my point of view current students are definitely well educated; however we are also quite restrained by the borders of Europe. I think this attitude will no longer serve. We are naturally ignorant of â¦ I, on the contrary, am very driven and interested in breaking through this boundary. From these I want to get good the elements. I am eager to develop. I find it interesting to put economic/political problems into the pillory. I can be quite taken up by thinking of a balanced policy.

Having experienced the concept of liberal arts and science in 2006 my conviction to apply for University College has grown stronger as time passed. The completed Roosevelt Junior Academy days (see enclosed certificate) and the open day visited at University College Utrecht have only served as reinforcements. I am appealed by UCâs curriculum, campus, professors, students, students associations and ambiance. I felt at home immediately with the campus and I felt a connection with the students I spoke to. I want more than offered by general universities. General universities do not strive to exploit ones individual academic abilities and they do not offer academic excellence. I want to be challenged. My future prospects are at the limit of what I want to consider reachable by own means, and no less. This is because I know I will do the best I possibly can and therefore I identify my future with endless possibilities.

In summer 2007 I took an educational travel to Cambridge. I stayed in a host family, for the reason I wanted to experience British living closely. It gave me renewed my energy to focus on what I want to achieve and therefore made me so much stronger and more motivated. For me this was a very special/changing experience. I finished with the intensive English course, specialized in Academic English at Advanced level. My English has improved â¦ in England. My environment had continuingly existed of a very rich diversity of cultures, which I experienced as very inspiring. I think it takes quite some adaptability to get settled in a totally new country and culture, and I think this is a very important talent to posses. I can easily find a way and socialize in unfamiliar surroundings.

In my exam year an opportunity occurred. I was selected for the School of Economics programme. I signed up and I intensely wanted to participate, for several of itâs aspects appealed to me; the academic education, the English language in studying and specialising in one of my most favourable subjects. This rather demanding extracurricular activity I enjoyed fullest, I am convinced studying in English will increase my satisfaction of studying and turning to English education will cause least trouble. I wanted more of my education and this challenged me.

Furthermore I arranged I will not be making a general PWS, but to complete this in a more academic, specialized and scientific way at School of Economics (Utrecht University) in the British language.

I put a lot of energy and satisfaction into the art of debating. When I was fifteen, I joined the students association Utrecht Debating Society. Speaking in public now represents one of my skills. As a scholar I had to catch up the gap between me and the student members. This only stimulated my ability in learning faster. Besides regular debating I am very interested in performing eloquentia en Iâm considering making that one of my extracurricular activities in the future. I have also been a co-judge at the NK debating tournament 2007 in Tilburg. In my leisure time I like to â¦ in the ancient theory of pleading, especially to read the great works of Cicero, Socrates and Plato.

I am already making efforts to make arrangements to go abroad upcoming summer. My aunt and uncle are very active in Africa concerning charity and voluntary activities, with this connection I hope it is possible to obtain a safe and valuable place to analyze and learn about unbalanced political/economical systems, and experience helping people for whom I think I can contribute to transfer knowledge to people unable to get education. There are still two sides of the badge, because I think such an experience enriches me as a human being. I also like to analyze the as it seems bottomless situation.

I have a broad range of interests and I have quite a few requirements fit for a study to my personal wishes. My contribution to University College Utrecht would be valuable, if given the opportunity. One of the reasons I am so passionately firm about studying liberal arts and sciences is the great international orientation. I would be honoured to join/strengthen the Future Leaders Project. The living environment of a large diversity of cultures does seem only tremendously inspiring to me. Considering UCU students make use of â¦ a lot, my debating skills will definitely be an advantage for me and liveliness in class. My active class-participation will be a mentionable contribution. I would also like to be actively involved in several committees at University College Utrecht. In my high school there was no occasion to have been involved in MUN, Model United Nations. Since Iâm aware of the MUN at university level is offered at University College Utrecht Iâm determined to become member of this organisation.

UCU could give me the possibility to fulfil my academic needs, such as Future Leaders Project and an MUN-foundation. It will also shape me exactly fit for my future plans.

I think it is a huge prÃ© for a student ambitioning an academic international carreer to be all-round. UCU is able to offer, in my opinion, optimal âvormingâ. Highly academic skills, an intensive network with motivated people all over the world, an international âblikâ, broad but good knowledge and ability to speak English almost as a native speaker.

During my high school I have personally been through a hard time regarding my domestic situation and I have no doubt this had also restrained me in performing to my fullest academic capability. Especially in de 4^th and 5^th class I was most affected by this, and therefore my exam grades averages started at a lower rank. It took me a while to be able to remain least affected by this negativity with help from a psychologist. I managed to get my grades up with hard work and high grades, but considering my own personal capability this couldâve been a lot more and will be at University College Utrecht. I think it did make me a lot stronger as an individual. In my opinion a human must strive to take advantage of every event.

Enclosed you will find a form of recommendation from Dr. Verbraak and Dr. Filius. Mr Verbraak is my teacher of management and organisation. Mr. Verbraak knows me well as a student and as an individual. Mr Filius has been my mentor in the sixth class and has been most aware of my personal circumstances. Mr Visschers has been my English teacher for several years and is well aware of my English level of proficiency, enclosed you find his comments on this matter.

Finally, I consider myself a suitable candidate for this program. In my time at KWC I have really showed my motivation, both academically and socially. I hope that I have convinced you of my motivation and that you will grant me this opportunity.

Yours faithfully,
Claire Wientjes

Re: already or yet in questions?

Tarkowsky — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:35:29 GMT

From BBC learning English site

already - meaning and use

Whereas still and yet normally refer to present and future circumstances, already normally refers to something that is in the present or recent past. It is mainly used in questions and affirmative sentences and usually expresses surprise that something has happened sooner than expected.

When do you expect Polly to arrive?
~ She's already here! Haven't you seen her?

Have you finished that typing already?
Yes, I finished it about five minutes ago.

Another reliable source is Michael Swan (Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1997):

"Already is used to say that something is in the present or past, not the future. It may express some surprise - for example, because something has happened sooner than expected.

"When's Sally going to come?" "She's already here."

" Have you already finished? That was quick!

In questions, we use yet to ask whether something expected has happened.

Is supper ready yet?

Has the postman come yet?"

pp. 562-63

Re: Learning english mp3 format

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:43:52 GMT

maybe at open learn of the open university uk...they have free courses...

An apology to all the moderators and teachers

Hungry — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:19:14 GMT

Dear Moderators and Teachers,

I am terribly sorry, if I have been quite annoying to you. I fully realize my mistake, and admit it. I know you are volunteers here and will help if you feel like and when you feel like. Itâs morally wrong to urge you to help me urgently. But I would like you to know the reason why I made urgent, urgent requests. Unfortunately, the education system is quite dishonest where I live. Teachers possess quite a rude attitude towards students. They donât teach a lot, but encumber the students with tons of homework-assignments. If, during a class, a student dares raise his hand to ask the questions rolling in his mind, he is scolded and seated back. In this case, he has no options but to hire a private tutor. The private tutor is approachable but unluckily not that qualified. Now you tell me where there this kind of system prevails how can a student learn English? Every teacher comes up with a new grammar, and denies others. Students are provided with bundles of study notes, they memorize them and try to reproduce the same in order to ace the exams. They totally forget they are learning a language. However if, by chance, a sincere, devoted and well-qualified teacher comes, heâs either very expensive, or doesnât know how to teach, or disrespected by others, and told to keep pace with the prevailed system. The concept of learning English is limited schools and institutes only, and Iâve just told you how obscure the concept is. In colleges and universities, they say âYou have grown up now. Make a habit of learning yourselves now.â The students are just given topics to write compositions on. Now, the question is âHow can they write a composition, when havenât been acquainted with the right grammar before?â Anyway, they, despite all this, bend over backwards to get over with the assignments, submit them, and get them back with a lot red marking. You will be tired of wading thru the issue, but it will perhaps never end.

Anyway, I hope you would have understood my problems, and will accept my apology.

Thank you,

Great Regards,
Hungry

Re: How to distinguish verbs

Ruslana — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:26:13 GMT

Hi, Skyline,

As to your second point, I've run across both 'ing' verbs and infinitives after 'start', so either usage would be okay these days, I reckon.

When learning English at university, we used to learn by heart those verbs that should be followed with an 'ing' verb and with an infinitive. (I still have somewhere a list of such verbs devided in two columns, but I guess it's not too correct since it claimed 'start' should always take an 'ing' verb - but it's not quite so, as I've mentioned.)

By the way, when you use an 'ing' verb or an invinitive, there may be a difference in meanings:

He stopped to smoke. <-- He made a stop in order to smoke a cigarette.

He stopped smoking. <-- He gave up smoking.

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!

Re: need help with a letter to embassy

Doll — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:11:36 GMT

Well, here it is:
Dear Sir or Madam,

Iâve always been interested in studying the English language. At school we began learning English since our second year. Later I took private lessons for some time to improve my skills and grammar level. My attachment to studying the language helped me to choose university. Now Iâm a student of Russian university of peoplesâ friendship.
This year Iâve got an exciting opportunity to visit Ireland â a country Iâve always dreamed of. My parents offered to pay language courses at Aspect (International Language Academies) in Dublin. I should say Iâve never been abroad yet, thatâs why having such a chance makes me be in happy foretaste. I will be able to gain experience and knowledge not only through classes and books, but also by communicating with native speakers. A great possibility to dive in the language.
But English is not the only reason for this trip. Irish culture has really fascinated me, and I am keen on learning more about it. In addition, attending language courses, I will have opportunities to meet people from various nations and cultures, offering me different points of view and contributing to my flexibility and creativity, besides the cultural and language gains. The knowledge, skills and experiences that I benefit from the educational programme will contribute greatly to my future career. In the end of the next year in my university I will take an exam for certificate of an interpreter. I hope this will help me in my future work in the sphere of chemistry.

Look over the higlighted places.

			"When's Sally going to come?" "She's *already* here."

			" Have you *already* finished? That was quick!

			Is supper ready *yet*?
			Has the postman come *yet*?"