Essay on TOEFL Should Be Mandatory: The Case of Higher Learning

ASSIGNMENT: Achieving competence as an interpersonal communicator in a diverse society is necessary to your personal and professional success. One way to enhance our understanding of interpersonal communication as a relationship-building activity is to engage in first hand dialogue with people from cultures other than your own. This assignment gives you the opportunity to engage in the dual perspective – honoring the perspective of the person with whom you are communicating as well as honoring your own perspective. You are also able to contrast your worldview with the perspective of someone with a different life experience than your

The first point in my theory is that you can better your skills as an interpersonal communicator by better understanding your own culture. DeVito states that there are. “several major cultural distinctions that are crucial for more effective communication” they are: individualism or collectivism, high or low context, high or low power distance, masculinity or femininity, high or low ambiguity tolerance, long or short term orientation, and indulgent or (p. 34). To be able to understand your or anyone else’s culture you must be able to understand the ways that these things affect communication. Once you understand the ways that you are oriented in these seven categories due to enculturation you can understand how you communicate and become a more effective

“What it takes for English Learners to Succeed?” is an article written by Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher that illustrate concepts that will allow English Learners to become fluent in English. The purpose of this article is to discuss four accessible teaching practices that will allow English Learners in U.S. classroom to become academically successful and attain fluency in English. To clarify, the authors use access, climate, expectations, and language instruction as the practices that will eliminate education inequality and enable students to be able to fully participate in rigorous course work without excluding English Learners. Ultimately this provides an approachable school reform, creates additive integration of multicultural perspective and approach and lastly brings a way for language diversity to be seen in the classroom.

My research is focused on the problems associated with cross-cultural communication and how awareness of culture, language, tradition, and business practices can increase the advantages to globalization. This report will be field specific in

English learners are currently the fastest developing student population in schools today. This makes it extremely important to provide these students with the programs and services they deserve. Providing a strong education for ELL students is what I personally believe to be an asset in America’s future. Today there are many challenges I believe teachers and students face when it comes to instruction and assessments.

The school system do not take in consideration that ELL students not only have a language barrier that prevent them from performing on the standardized tests, but that they are transitioning from a completely different learning environment. ELL students are also classified as poor academic performers because of their language barrier. This language barrier explain the academic achievement gaps between ELL students and native english-speaking students. The test scores are not sufficient proof to argue that ELL students have a gap in academic achievement. This is questionable to the validity of the standardized tests on ELL students.(Youth)

The American society has a vast influence on students who are English learners. In this case it is prominent

As a certified English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, the English Language Learner (ELL) population is very near and dear to my heart. According to Barr, Eslami, & Joshi (2012), the ELL population is the fastest growing demographic in the U.S with most incoming students arriving from Asia/Pacific Islands and Hispanic regions. Both of these populations are expected to continue to increase in the future. Over two-thirds of this population over the age of 5 speak a second language at home. According to the 2013-2014 Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR) there were 67 ELL enrolled on our campus, which is 3.6 percent of the total population of 1,851 students. Although this year our ELL population is lower than usual in future years are numbers are expected to grow exponential due to the rapid growth currently happening in our community. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), ELL students continue to have low achievement levels when compared to their native speaking peers. Data shows that as students get older, their success rates are lower and lower with over half not reaching mastery at the high school levels. Our campus is not different. The TAPR report shows that only 57% of our ELL population scored satisfactory on the end of year STAAR exam, which is almost 10% lower than the state average of 76% passing and 35% lower than the campus average of 92% passing. Due to these deficits, it is imperative to develop and plan of action that will help to bridge

Of all student populations (aside from participants in Special Education programs), English Language Learners (ELLs) face the most academic challenges—especially on standardized evaluations emphasizing

English Language Learners face a variety of unique challenges when compared to their non-ELL peers. For example, when assessing new English Language Learners, once such challenge is the lack of effective assessment tools. Many of the available instruments are not culturally relevant to the ELL student’s background, nor created at an appropriate level for their developing English language skills. Another challenge is the lack of availability of qualified education professionals, who are equipped to meet their specific needs linguistically. Language and cultural differences may serve to put ELL students at an academic disadvantage, regardless of whether they possess normal cognitive skills. For the educator and student alike, this matter is further complicated when an ELL is affected by a learning disability. In this essay, I will discuss some special factors and issues that an ELL professional may encounter when assessing an ELL student, and attempting to determine the cause of a language difficulty; whether it occurs because of normal language acquisition issues, or because of an underlying learning disability that calls for special education intervention and support.

Education sets out to achieve many goals, among them are empowering students with the ability to learn how to think critically and solve problems, how to work independently and cooperatively with others, and how to become lifelong learners. Meeting the needs of students is a difficult task, but even more so when dealing with students who are not proficient or possess limited skills with the English Language. Public schools across the country have seen significant growth in student diversity in the last few years in regards to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and language (Johnson, 2015).

Thesis Statement: Because of the high-stakes outcomes connected to standardized testing with consistently lower test scores among English language learners (ELLs), the extended use of standardized tests to make high-stakes decisions about student placement, promotion, and graduation raises fundamental issues concerning ELLs students culturally, linguistically, and academically.

Being able to understand how people from different cultures and religions communicate, interact, and perceive the environment around them allows for the formation of important guidelines and practices which help combat and avoid anxiety and uncertainty in government, business, and personal intercultural relationships for the purpose of efficient negotiations and merges different cultures into more tolerant cohesive existence.

The world has become hugely interconnected over the last couple of year. With globalization being the preferred mode of operation for many businesses, the world has become borderless. Developments made in the field of information communication technology have also played a key role in helping bridge the gap that exists between people from different regions of the world. Thus, the world has become more interconnected with a lot of intercultural sharing. These developments have made it easier for businesses to penetrate and dominate foreign markets. In their videos on Ted talk, both Peter Alfandary and James Sun argue that there is a need for people to try to learn about other cultures as this enhances relation and understanding among people. The paper presents an analysis of existing research and current trends that reiterate or disapprove the views held by these narrators. It seeks to show that though globalization has taken root in today’s world, there is a need to take an interest in learning other cultures as this will ensure a better understand especially when doing business.

The studies revealed through various channels such as questionnaires, interviews, and academic evaluations of grades, found that the IELTS and TOEFL tests were not accurate or helpful measures of student English ability. The studies that did show a positive correlation between test scores and academic performance either had too few subjects to measure, or correlations too insignificant to validate. The Australian university that found a strong positive correlation between Chinese students’ test scores and GPAs found that later semesters did not reveal the same results. This is possibly due to Semester 1 courses being easier than later courses through their college career. A factor that must be considered is the students who are not accepted due to a low score (usually under 6.0) who may have had the potential to succeed in the field of their choice in higher education. Lastly, the financial aspect of losing possible international students due to a higher score required for acceptance causes questions concerning the importance of earning said scores. The evidence from this paper has shown that there is not a strong positive correlation between IELTS/TOEFL scores and higher education success regarding the English language as a guiding force.