Education Report

Foreign Student Series: Answering Your Questions
In part 17, we answer questions about American higher education and about learning English. Transcript of radio broadcast: 14 January 2009

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We answer some questions this week in our series on getting into an American college or university.

The first question has to do with our recent discussion of English language tests. Vo Ngoc Toan from Vietnam would like to know about the TOEIC-- the Test of English for International Communication.

Graduating students and alumni at a job fair in New York

This test is designed to measure skills in English as spoken in the workplace. People may be required to take it if they apply for jobs with companies or other employers. But TOEIC scores are not used for college admission in the United States.

The Educational Testing Service administers the TOEIC. It says the test measures the language skills of people working in an international environment.

American colleges and universities accept scores from the TOEFL and often the IELTS. If you missed our report on these tests, you can find it at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Click on Foreign Student Series.

Tahir Mahmood from Pakistan asks how to improve his English before taking these kinds of tests. Well, you can start by looking for ways to use English as much as you can. Watch American movies and TV shows and read books in English. Look for English speakers to talk to.

The Internet has a lot of free resources for English learners. Visitors to voaspecialenglish.com, for example, can read, listen and watch programs on many different subjects.

The United States Department of Education recently launched a free Web site designed to help immigrants learn English. The site is called USA Learns. The address is u-s-a-l-e-a-r-n-s dot o-r-g.

Next, a question from Turkey: Hasan Eker asks about getting a postdoctoral position in the United States. This is work generally done by a person who recently earned a PhD, or doctor of philosophy degree. The National Postdoctoral Association in Washington, D.C., has information about international postdocs on its Web site. That address is nationalpostdoc -- all one word -- dot org.

And, finally, we have questions from Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia about how to pay for an education through loans or jobs. There are rules that restrict the kinds of jobs that foreign students can have while studying in the United States. But stay tuned. In the next few weeks, we will discuss financial aid as we talk about the costs of an American education.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

Lisenning English MP3

Foreign Student Series: The Business of the GMAT
In part 16, we discuss the Graduate Management Admission Test. Transcript of radio broadcast: 07 January 2009

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

What do you think is the most popular subject of study for international students at colleges and universities in the United States?

How many of you thought of engineering? Seventeen percent of foreign students, or one out of six, studied engineering during the last academic year.

But the Institute of International Education says twenty percent, or one in five, studied business and management.

Two fifth-graders, seated, learning the basics of business administration during a month-long program at an elementary school in San Francisco, California, in 2007

Which brings us to the subject this week in our Foreign Student Series -- the Graduate Management Admission Test. The GMAT is commonly required for students who want to earn a master of business administration.

The GMAT is a computer test that measures reading, mathematics and writing skills. You have to write two essays in sixty minutes.

An organization of business schools, the Graduate Management Admission Council, is responsible for the GMAT. Four thousand programs around the world, it says, use the GMAT as an important part of their admissions process.

But just as students compete on tests, tests also compete. In fact, the GMAT could offer a good case study for a business class. The council's Web site points out that the Educational Testing Service has recently been marketing its GRE test to graduate schools of business.

The council presents reasons why business schools should use the GMAT instead of the Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE. Most importantly, it says the GMAT was designed by business schools for business schools.

The GMAT costs two hundred fifty dollars, which is a lot. But the council says that is because the test can be taken almost every day of the year at more than four hundred centers around the world. Almost two hundred of these are outside the United States.

Students can learn more about the GMAT at mba.com.

Now, another question: Which countries do you think send the most students to the United States for higher education? The Institute of International Education in New York says last year's top five were India, China, South Korea, Japan and Canada. The United States, it says, received a record six hundred twenty-four thousand international students. The number was seven percent higher than the year before.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

Lisenning English MP3

Foreign Student Series: TOEFL or IELTS?
In part 15, we look at the two major English language tests accepted by colleges and universities in the U.S. Transcript of radio broadcast: 17 December 2008

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

For the past two weeks, we have talked about the SAT and ACT college admissions tests and the GRE for graduate school. This week in our Foreign Students Series, we move on to English language tests.

Most American colleges and universities accept one or both of the two major tests. One is the Test of English as a Foreign Language, known as the TOEFL. The other is the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS.

The TOEFL is given in one hundred eighty countries. The competing IELTS is given in one hundred twenty-one countries.

One million people each year take the TOEFL, says Tom Ewing, a spokesman for the Educational Testing Service. Same with the IELTS, says Beryl Meiron, the executive director of IELTS International.

She says two thousand colleges and universities in the United States now recognize the IELTS. Schools might accept it only for undergraduate or graduate admission or both.

The IELTS is a paper test, while the TOEFL is given on paper only in places where a computer test is unavailable.

The TOEFL paper test costs one hundred fifty dollars. It tests reading, listening and writing. A separate Test of Spoken English costs one hundred twenty-five dollars.

The computer version is called the TOEFL iBT, or Internet-based test. The price is different in each country, but generally falls between one hundred fifty and two hundred dollars.

The TOEFL iBT and the IELTS both measure all four language skills -- listening, reading, writing and speaking. But with the IELTS, the speaking test is done separately as a live interview. You speak with an examiner who is certified in ESOL -- English for speakers of other languages.

Everyone takes the same speaking and listening tests. But there is a choice of two kinds of reading and writing tests -- either academic or general training.

IELTS International says the test measures true-to-life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and employment. Institutions in Britain and Australia jointly developed it.

The cost is different in each country. But Beryl Meiron says the price in local currency is generally comparable to about one hundred sixty dollars. The IELTS Web site is ielts.org. The TOEFL Web site is toefl.org.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

Lisenning English MP3

Foreign Student Series: Admissions Tests
In part 13, we start to discuss entrance exams; plus, a new report warns about the rising costs of higher education in the U.S. Transcript of radio broadcast: 03 December 2008