Assessing ELL students Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assessing ELL students - Research Paper Example All together, adult ELL students in United States universities speak roughly 400 languages, even though approximately 80% are native speakers of Spanish. Individuals of Asian origin — mainly speakers of Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Hmong — account for almost 5% of the size of adult ESL learners in United States universities. While most of these learners are found in prime urban centers, many others reside together in smaller towns. English-language learners (ELLs) are concentrated in six states — California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois. The English-language learners in those six states make up more than 60% of the ELL population. The United States federal regime’s No Child Left Behind rule of 2001 has created the urge to make legitimate and fair assessments for English-language learners an issue of pressing nationwide concern (Hakuta, 2009). Therefore, institutions have produced frameworks that tend to assist educators, practitioners and test developers, in making appropriate choices on assessment of English language learners in educational content fields. ... This is why university guidelines are so vital: they help teachers assess students’ mastery of content while reducing the role of the learner’s English proficiency in its assessment. The three universities that will be considered are the University of North Carolina, University of Denver and Georgetown University. Part 1: Interview University of North Carolina Freshly enrolled international learners, who are supposed to hand in a TOEFL score, are urged to take the English Proficiency Assessment prior to registering for classes (University of North Carolina, 2013). Students willing to be enrolled must go through some information at their admission letters to check whether they should sit for the exam. The exam is administered just prior to the start of the Spring and Fall semesters. The aim of the English Proficiency Assessment is to recognize those learners who would profit from more English instruction in a program (ENGL 601) created to establish standard United States academic writing conventions. Rooted in the results of the exam, a student might be needed to sit for the ENGL 601 program during his or her first fall semester of admission (University of North Carolina, 2013). A student meets North Carolina University’s English Language Proficiency requirements if they completed Grades 11, as well as 12 English, in succession, as part of two full academic years, in any high school via a state- or provincially-accredited United States curriculum. Also, the student is expected to have attained a grade of 80% or more in a Grade 12 state-examined English program, as part of one full term of education. University of Denver The University of Denver recognizes either the TOEFL or IELTS as

Promoting Reading Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Promoting Reading Development - Essay Example The strategy used is highly comprehensive. The other strategy is the use of the use of tests in vocabulary understanding. These tests can be either written or oral (Glasgow and Cheyne, 2010). The written ones can be used to test and improve the ability of the learner to capture English words at a personal level. They also help to improve the spelling ability of the learner. Oral tests can be conducted to help improve the pronunciation of the learner. These oral tests can be carried out in the classroom where each student is given an opportunity to stand in front of the class and spell out English words. For every wrong spelling the learner can be assisted by other learners in the classroom. The other strategy that can be used is the reading out loud of English texts in class. The teacher can come with various English books and distribute them among the students. The books can be of any topic ranging from history to geography and biology. The learners then take turns to read sections of the books out loud in the classroom (Glasgow and Cheyne, 2010). This tests their fluency in reading and helps them in the correct pronunciation of the English words. In addition, the learners also get to improve their vocabulary by learning new words. After the reading out in class, the learners are required to write a report on the book that was read in class (Spiro, 1980). The teacher assesses each report and identifies the level of understanding of each learner. After this, the teacher can then point out each learner’s weakness and give them an assignment of reading a particular book by themselves and submitting another report. The other strategy that can be used is educational video shows in class. These can range from pronunciation shows to just the normal shows. During each show, the learner is required to listen carefully to the conversations. At the end of each show, there can be a set of questions to be answered based