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International student experience personal
Studying abroad essay
International student experience personal
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The second language learner that I have chosen to assess in my case study is an international student from Korea who is now attending year 11 and does the ESL course at my school, the Hills Grammar School. I will refer to my student with the name ‘John’ for confidentiality reasons.
In this case study I will introduce my student, his language background; his exposure to English before coming to Australia and his current level of English based on the ESL scales after analysing his speaking, reading and writing work samples. I will assess John’s proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and responding and writing and I will make a detailed profile of the reading and responding aspect.
John was born in South Korea and lived there for 13 years. He attended the Wolchon Middle School in Korea till the age of thirteen. His mother tongue proficiency is very good as he likes reading and still reads books in Korean when he has time. John moved to Australia together with his mother four years ago, so he has not lost the contact to his first language. He uses both Korean and English in his everyday life, both at home and at school, he keeps in contact with his family in Korea, reads the news on the internet and listens to Korean music.
His first exposure to English happened while he was still in Korea. He studied the language for about 4 years in school and from a tutor. Learning a foreign language in Korea does not include conversation in that language. English is taught only for reading, writing and listening purposes. For this reason John had a good knowledge of the grammar, he understood written language, but was unable to communicate in his second language.
When John arrived in Sydney he was not enrolled in an intensive English cen...
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...ge of conjunctions to join sentences; e.g. also, however
The subject-verb agreement happens for most nouns e.g. the aspect is, the purpose is, first reason is, John makes only one error of this kind when he writes :a dictator is selfish and thinks other people is less human being. Another error John made is regarding the simple past tense of the verb to cut, which is an irregular verb and does not follow the pattern used for regular verbs, which is adding the ending -ed.
John maintains a good control of time and tense; in his texts he uses mainly present tense and future tense.
After assessing John’s language proficiency by observing, interacting and analysing his oral and written language we can conclude that he is a phase three student who generally functions fluently and competently in English, but who occasionally needs assistance to improve even more.
Chang Rae-Lee, author of "Mute in an English-Only World," moved to America from Korea when he was only six or seven years old. He adopted the English language quickly, as most children do, but his mother continued to struggle. "For her, the English language…usually meant trouble and a good dose of shame and sometimes real hurt" (Lee 586). It is obvious, though, that his mother was persistent in her attempt to learn English and deal with her limited culture experience, as Lee accounts of her using English flash cards, phrase books and a pocket workbook illustrated with stick-people figures. Lee sympathetically connects with the audience through his mother, and forces them to make a personal conclusion when he ends the article with a lingering question in the reader’s mind; what if they had seen her struggling? Would they have sat back and watched or stepped up to help?
...r they had all received the same language instruction for three years (kindergarten, first and second grade). These finding conclude that English language proficiency at the time of entering school does not matter. A good early literacy program works for both L1 students and ESL students who enter school at the kindergarten age. Students at that age are very susceptible to learning new languages quickly. The ESL children had difficulties in kindergarten, but by second grade they had caught up and were right on track with the L1 students and some of them even surpassed the L1 students.
Flynn, K. & Hill, J. (2005). English language learners: A growing population. Mid-Research For Education And Learning, 1-11.
...e into consideration the characteristics of young English language learners and their language development, the learning conditions that are most effective for these learners, and the kinds of instruction that best meet their needs.
The Holistic oral language scoring rubric is comprised of overall ratings, rather than individual skills. However, these rating are based how an English Language Learner combines and uses all of the skills at once. The first rating on the Holistic rubric is the lowest score which signifies that very little or no English is known. The second rating suggests that there is an understanding of words but only short patterns are used. The third rating is when an ELL student is able to respond and communicate in conversations but can also be hesitant while speaking. In fourth rating, a student is able to go into details during a conversation and begins to complex vocabulary. In the fifth rating, a student is not hesitating or experiencing interferences
Johnson and Newport used 46 native Chinese or Korean second language learners of English who were students and faculty members at an American university. The subjects were presented together because of their native languages dissimilarity to English and lack of difference in the results of two groups. The subjects' ages differentiate between 3 and 39, when they first arrived in the US and they had lived in the target language culture for between the age of 3 and 26. According to their age of arrival in the US, t...
English Language Learners range from Newcomers learning survival English and developing foundational literacy skills to Long-Term English Learners who have had 6 years or more of their education in English yet continue have significant language gaps. These students may speak English with little or no accent and still lack the vocabulary, grammar and grade level literacy to be successful in school. English language learners may remain silent in the classroom as they adjust to a new school, environment, and culture unless he is a native language comrade to interact with. The English language learners are concerned about decoding verbal and non- verbal communication as well as understanding the social culture framework of the school. Most of the time English language learners are observing during instruction, trying to repeat words used by others, memorizing simple phrases and sentences, tired by midday or be frustrated attending long lectures unaccompanied by visual and gestures, relying on first language translation used peer translation or bilingual dictionary, as the students begin to learner they become more involved in the classroom, they can respond non-verbally to commands, statements, and questions in simple form. As their oral comprehension increases, they begin to use simple word and phrases and may use English spontaneously. They can understand short conversation on a simple topic when reading students can understand a narrative text and authentic materials, although they will be below
The student I worked with is a five-year-old male whose second language is English. He did not have a disability, rather, a disadvantage aside the other children in the classroom. Because his only “disability” came from English being his second language, I was unsure of how I should approach the research to find the best way to support his learning. The student’s first language is Hindi. Since I was with him during the school day, I am unsure of his family dynamics at home. As mentioned previously, he is a student at Hillcrest junior kindergarten where he also sees an ESL teacher for help transitioning between languages. Emotionally, cognitively, and physically, the student seems to be...
O’Neill,S., Gish, A. (2008). Teaching English as a second language. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
This test was developed in correspondence with the increased need for competitive skills in English language. It is mostly taken by those who need to certify their level of English proficiency for reasons such as education, vocation and immigration. Quoting the IELTS Handbook (2006:4) Green (2007) claims that the test tests the language ability of candidates who may need to study or work in countries where English is the language of communication. The test generally measures a person’s ability to communicate in English across several skills including Listening on which this paper will focus on.
In today’s competitive world, academic is very important and a good grade is most have in order to make a decent career. For the international student like me, this class is very important. This class teaches us to adopt the writing styles used in many fields and also makes us able to communicate properly within the society. The vast diversity and increasing immigration in this country are making the society more globalized. To stand out among those crowds and make a decent career, we have to do better in learning the way the society understands and ESL class teaches us that. Furthermore, as English is generally the language used by almost everyone working and dealing at all level, mastering it is important to ESL students like me.
This rule often makes people confused whenever they translate in their brains. While the structure order of English is “subject + verb + object”, the structure order of Korean is “subject + object”. For instance, unlike with English, students assignment do in Korea. Hence, there is a saying in Korea that “people need to listen until the end of the sentences.” This means people never know if the speaker is talking about past, present, future, positive or negative until the speaker finished her or his speech. On the other hand, people can know who and what the speaker does, unless people listen to the whole
Hong’s family strictly conversed in Cantonese daily, while my family mainly spoke in English and southern Vietnamese. Going to the Hong’s home at first made me feel Alienated. I would see Hong’s entire family speak in their own Language, and occasionally speak some English to me. Simple words or sentences such as, hi, hello, how are you, and good-bye were used. It was interesting to see my friend switch sides of language as soon as he stepped home.
...k some basic Korean, but not fluent. Living in a foreign country not knowing much about it will be very difficult of course. Being away from home and my family will probably be one of the biggest obstacle I’ll have to cope with. Since I am so used to living here in California with my family for most of my life moving to a unfamiliar place without them would be very lonely. Yet then again living in a different and foreign environment will have lots to teach me about life, and the new culture I will be experiencing.
People live in the world of communication. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (Moore, 1997), communication is defined as, “The activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or of giving people information”. The significance of communication can be found within the context of a human existing as a social being. As a human being manages his or her life in the course of the interaction between other members of the entire society, communication is inevitable. Communication occurs through the medium of a language and it is presented in two different forms which are written and spoken (Brown & Yule, 1983: 1-10). The importance of spoken performance of a language is becoming more prominent over the written performance capability. It is because the ability to speak a language reflects a person’s personality, self image, knowledge of the world, ability to reason, skill to express thoughts in real-time (Luoma, 2004: ix). These days, due to the global trend of internationalisation, the ability to communicate in English is needed as an essential skill. Whenever the international exchange happens, the use of spoken English entails. However, it is not always an easy task for people who use English as a second language to be able to speak to the level of a native speaker. They have to perfectly understand the sound system of English, have almost instant access to proper vocabulary and be able to place words together intelligibly without hesitation. Moreover, they also have to perceive what is being said to them and need to be able to respond appropriately to acquire amiable relations or to accomplish their communicative goals (Luoma, 2004: ix). Therefore, non-native English speakers encounter these barriers and they are subject to make mistakes often. In relation to this matter, this essay argues that there are socio-cultural factors as well as linguistic factors that affect non-native speakers’ communication in English. It provides analysis of several different situations when the use of spoken English has generated miscommunication problems in regards to author’s personal experience.