If there's one piece of advice you take away from this site, let it be this: You don't need to study grammar to learn to speak a foreign language. ![]() Amount: Time Period: Department or Category of Waste: Waste or Policy Suggestion: Argument for Waste or Policy Suggestion: Source: $495,000 : 2009: ARRA: Taxpayer.Bib. Me: Free Bibliography & Citation Maker. Select style& search. Select style & search. Search for a book, article, website, film, or enter the information yourself. Add it easily and continue. Add it easily and continue. Add it to your bibliography and continue citing to build your works cited list. Download bibliography. Download bibliography. Download your bibliography in either the APA, MLA, Chicago or Turabian formats.
The best opinions, comments and analysis from The Telegraph. Adults Going Back to Schoolby My. College. Guide. org. Adults Going Back to School. Thinking about going back to school? Find out how you can prepare with these tips for adult learners returning to the classroom. The thought of heading to college as an adult – either after you’ve been away for a few years or if you never got around to going in the first place – is nerve- racking, to say the least. However, making this decision doesn’t have to be something that keeps you up at night. Does it take some planning and hard work to juggle the rigors of maintaining your coursework while also keeping up with a full- time job and a few kids at home? Of course – no one can deny this fact. Our new guide: Going Back to School Made Simple – A Step- by- Step Guide. Fortunately, if you’re well- versed on what it takes to go back to school the right way, then you can ensure that you keep all of these responsibilities in line, all while enjoying a quality education experience from the comfort of your own home. To learn more about how to turn this dream into a reality, here’s a look at everything you need to know about going back to school by enrolling in an accredited, high- quality online degree program that can rival anything you’d find on- campus. How Can I Finish My Degree with a Family and a Full- Time Job? As far as the logistics of continued education as an adult are concerned, the rise of reputable online programs ensures that you have a plethora of options from which to choose. Gone are the days of assuming that online learning is a path designed only for those who weren’t quite up to the task of completing an on- campus degree program. Currently, the most popular degrees being offered online include: Going a step farther, learning from home means that you no longer have to balance strict personal, professional, and educational schedules all at the same time. Not dealing with the headaches of a daily commute and rigid class times ensures that you complete your coursework on your own time – all without sacrificing other responsibilities and duties. Can I get Credit for My Work Experience? One of the easiest ways to save time – and money – as an adult who plans to go back to school is by putting your personal, professional, and prior academic experience to good use. Depending on your target institution, you may be able to apply up to 3. The first method of converting this experience into college credits comes via an academic portfolio. Essentially, you’ll need to compile all the relevant documentation from your personal, professional, and even military experience that proves you have the acumen to skip over certain portions of your coursework. From here, you’ll submit this document for review to the presiding professor or administrator at your university. Outside of the portfolio approach, there’s also a chance that your professional accolades and credentials – think certified professional account (CPA) and certified computer programmer (CCP) licenses, as well as military training – can also cut down on your degree workload. If you’re willing to sit down for a test, challenge exams are also a great way to prove your expertise in a specific area of your coursework. How Does Online Learning Work? In terms of the actual online learning process, the name of the game is speed and flexibility. Classes are usually offered via short eight week- long semesters as a way to expedite your time in the virtual classroom, though some institutions still abide by the more traditional 1. Submitting tests, papers, and other coursework is typically accomplished via an online learning platform, so you can complete your required assignments at any time, as long as you finish before the due date established by your professor. Speaking of your professors, interaction comes in a variety of different forms: Email. Online discussion boards. Live chat. Phone. Personal meeting (depends on your proximity to the physical campus location)You’ll also find that any lectures, supplemental downloads, and course- specific digital tools can be accessed within your online learning portal or a specified student server. Is Going Back to College Worth It? The first question that crosses the mind of virtually anyone considering this decision covers whether or not going back to college is really worth it. Unfortunately, there’s no hard “yes” or “no” answer to this question that applies to everyone who embarks upon this path. Figuring out the worth of the adult education process requires asking yourself a few key questions and breaking down what you expect from a degree after you wrap up your coursework. If your focus revolves around earning potential, then you’ll be happy to know that – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – college graduates earn about $1 million more during their working careers when compared to individuals who stop their education after receiving a high school diploma. For those who aren’t just worried about the salary side of the equation, but would rather look at this as an opportunity to enrich themselves, going back to school gives you the perfect opportunity to fulfill this desire. The best part is that you don’t have to put the rest of your life on hold as you seek to achieve these personal goals. How Can I Afford to Pay My College Tuition? When it comes to hammering out the financial details of your return to school, this piece of the puzzle doesn’t have to be one that causes consternation and concern. Most accredited online universities offer financial aid or payment plans, and Federal Pell Grants and student loans are always available to those who meet the requirements of these assistance programs. Here are at My College Guide, we constantly research new scholarship opportunities to help adult students find creative ways to fund their college education. Another place to look for financial assistance is your current employer. The offering of tuition reimbursement is a rising trend within the private sector, so it’s important check and see if this aid is available to employees within your organization. Will My Previously Earned Credits Transfer? As Jon Fortenbury of USA Today’s College Choice explains, transferring previously earned college credits depends entirely upon the receiving institution. Usually, a school will place limits on the maximum age allowed of credits being transferred, as well as how many of these assets you bring with you. Bringing all of what you’ve learned here together should making the overarching message fairly clear: If you’re willing to take a smart and savvy approach to the process of returning to college – from considering your online options to seeking out financial aid and the transfer of your previously earn credits – then there’s not much that can stop you from earning your desired degree through online study. Frequently Asked Questions. I took a semester off from college about six months ago. I have been working, and I want to return to college…but with a totally different major: pre- law to physical therapy. Will this affect my chances of getting into a good college? Also, do I have to include recommendation letters? I don’t know any professors or high school teachers that would give me recommendations. It sounds like you not only took a semester off, but you are also changing colleges. The process you’ll go through is simply to apply. You’ll need your transcript from your previous school, and those courses which apply to your new major will get transferred. As for recommendations, they may be required, and if so, you’ll have to deal with that. It always helps to send copies of your old work to previous professors or teachers you’ve had, it can help jog their memories. Good luck. I am a 2. I got bad grades)…but have since worked hard, overcome depression, and revised my work ethic considerably. I did very well in high school and had stellar SAT scores, but cannot be accepted into college now because of past failures. I have great career aspirations and do not want to be stuck in a dead- end job. How can I be accepted with my poor record? Are there any colleges that do not require all transcripts to be exposed? You have options. First off, there are any number of very good four year schools that are “non- competitive” — that is, they will take you without great concern about your past grades. Get a copy of Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges to find out which ones they are. An option is an online college which will have more lenient standards to get you started. Another option would be to begin again in a two- year college transfer program at a community college. If you do well in these and complete the work, you are a near certainty for admissions to a four year state program (unless you’ve killed someone along the way!). Yet another possibility is to try the evening college of a better four- year school. You enter as a non- degree candidate, are limited in the number of courses you may take (although many are during the day, not just at night), and are not guaranteed admissions. However, with very good grades, you can typically get in. Finally, I would suggest you look at two- year programs. Some of these programs parallel careers of four- year grads, but often make as much money. I feel your pain. So many people have been down your path. Don’t give up. Can I first become a teacher, get my teaching credentials, and then continue my education to later on become a lawyer? Lots of people return to school after starting one career, and teaching would probably be good background for law school. Law school is typically a three- year program. There may be some colleges that have five- year undergraduate degree programs that count toward law school completion, but I’m not aware of any. So, in general, you’d get your undergraduate degree (four years), then attend law school for three years. Then, of course, you’d have to pass the national and state bar exams. I am an adult going back to school. You Don't Need To Study Grammar To Learn A Foreign Language. If there’s one piece of advice you take away from this site, let it be this: You don’t need to study grammar to learn to speak a foreign language. It’s a fact that flies in the face of a whole world of failed classroom methodologies for foreign language instruction and misconceptions among learners about the way in which we acquire language. I’ve seen this topic cause arguments with people who are adamant that grammar study is necessary and I’ve had fellow co- teachers argue with me when I’ve approached the subject as if the idea of learning a language without grammar study is ludicrous. Well, before you start chucking a tanny (Australian for tantrum), read on and hear me out for a moment. Education departments’ grammar focus consistently results in a failure to produce proficient speakers. One of the main reasons why so many education systems around the world are failing to produce students who can speak a foreign language properly (even at an elementary level) is their strong emphasis on learning grammar as a foundation to speaking. When I posted my 6 month progress video for Gaeilge (which in my opinion wasn’t anything extraordinary) I received lots of comments and messages like this: I just want to say you just completely blew me away. Your accent, fluidity and confidence speaking the language completely outdoes 9. Speaks wonders for the power of a what someone can do with the internet and a little motivation, and also for just how broken our system of teaching is. As you can see my level at the 6 month mark is nothing incredible but it’s enough for people who spent 1. Up until this point, I’ve never studied grammar for this language. No verb tables, conjugations or syntax. Nor have I memorized vocabulary lists. My intention is to take an exam around the middle of next year at Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge to get my level certified according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) which I’m hoping, if I continue at the pace I’m at now, will be quite high by then. When you see students who have been learning a language for years yet still can’t communicate with that language it’s safe to say that there’s something seriously wrong with the approach they and their instructors have taken (motivation must also be taken into consideration too of course). I’ve encountered students in schools around the world who can read brilliantly and know English grammar better than I do yet they can barely produce basic greetings or understand a simple spoken introduction. Some of these classes are reading advanced level English texts, yet when a native speaking teacher like myself asks a simple “how are you?” they can’t respond. They’ve got nothing by way of conversational fluency to show for years of wasteful memorization of grammar rules. Grammar rules are what fluent speakers use to describe what they already know. You didn’t become a fluent speaker of your own language by studying its grammar. Well before the age of 5 (around the time you begin studying grammar in school) you were already a fluent speaker of your native language. You knew how to use verbs in different tenses before you even knew what a verb was. Toddlers start using complex sentences on their own without ever receiving explicit instruction or memorizing grammar rules. The primary reason why we actually learn the grammar of our own language in school is to enhance our literacy skills (reading and writing) – not to make us better speakers. I do acknowledge that there are valid arguments against comparing first and second language acquisition; adult learners have certain disadvantages when learning another language (e. However, there’s still so much we can learn and attempt to emulate by observing the way that children learn their first language with hardly any effort. If you’re a parent or have observed the language learning process of a child, you’d be familiar with stages like this in his/her development: 1. Incoherent babble. Single word utterances/naming (“car! I want”, “big house”)4. Complex sentences with prepositions and morphemes but grammatically incorrect (e. I goed Daddy’s work”, “Daddy work there”)5. Grammatically correct simple sentences (e. Mum, I’m hungry”)Consider for a moment that during this process of language development the child is obviously unable to read and learns all of this vocabulary and structure simply by listening to people around him/her. They receive occasional error correction from parents and other family members. For example: Child: Want dis one. Parent: You want this one? Child: Yeah. Dis one. But certainly not enough explicit error correction to say that children learn grammar by having their parents correct them. Children learn grammar by listening and repeating the sound patterns they hear other people say, beginning with 1 word utterances/naming and gradually moving up to small sentences. They also make lots and lots of mistakes. I’ve had a lot of children call me dolfin or domvin because that’s what my name – Donovan – sounds like to a learner’s ear. They just repeat what they hear and over time, through constant exposure and input, correct themselves. The Lexical Approach and Chunking. So if children can learn a language and its grammar in this way, what’s stopping adults from doing the same or something similar? Languages are acquired in prefabricated chunks – words, collocations and expressions that we hear repeatedly. This is why kids go from babble to speaking – to the amazement of their parents – seemingly overnight. To give you an example, “I want” is a chunk. You’ve used those two words together in that order a multitude of times in your lifetime. It’s a set expression that you heard and learned as a whole, and are able to create an infinite number of expressions by adding another chunk (a name or an action). Thus, ice- cream and to go are other chunks that you’ve also learned. What we do as fluent speakers is essentially put together or insert pieces of prefabricated language. Very little of what we actually say is original content. Here’s a key quote from a book that revolutionized the way I understand language learning, Michael Lewis’ Lexical Approach: Modern analyses of real data suggest that we are much less original in using language than we like to believe. Much of what we say, and a significant proportion of what we write, consists of prefabricated multi- word items. Fully fixed expressions must be acquired as wholes in precisely the same way as individual words or very strong collocations. I would go a step further and say that every verb tense you know was learned as a prefabricated item. For example, you didn’t learn the verb write and then learn how to conjugate it. You learned I write, she writes, they write, etc. When you hear something that doesn’t quite sound correct (e. Imagine hearing a song that you know really well – if a single note is played incorrectly you’ll detect it, even if you’re not musically inclined. The resource I’ve mentioned above, Michael Lewis’ Lexical Approach, was actually developed as an approach to ESL teaching but its application to learning foreign languages is incredible. Be deliberately ignorant. For many people, including myself at times, there’s a rush to know everything. Our curiosity compels us to want to know all the details, now. I see far too many people stressing over features of grammar in their target language that they’re trying desperately to get their heads around as if by doing so their command of the language will improve. But why is this particular verb conjugated like this and why does it come before the noun in that case? It doesn’t matter. Just accept it. Move on. Knowing that information will not make you a better speaker. All you’re doing is impeding your progress toward fluency by focusing on details that you’ll pick up automatically over time anyway. Focus on the meaning and function of what you’re saying and forget about why it’s said like that. Over time it will start to make sense to you as you learn more. Phrasebooks and authentic dialogue are the best investments. I talk about the usefulness of cheap phrasebooks often. Phrasebooks, along with resources that are full of natural, real dialogues are far more useful to you than something with a strong grammar focus. I’ve found the Rocket Languages series excellent for this as well (it’s arguably the best and most comprehensive natural dialogue course online). For Irish, shortly after I began learning it I got myself a copy of An Ghaeilge Bheo, which is a book full of natural conversational dialogue in Irish (with audio). It’s aimed at higher level students but as a resource full of chunks of real language spoken at natural speed with transcripts of the audio, it’s the perfect type of learning tool. I don’t ask questions about the grammar that’s used – I just observe the way that native speakers are saying certain things and I imitate what I hear. At times, I’ll take one sentence and let it be my focus for a whole day speaking it, writing it, creating new sentences by adding new words, and Googling the sentence (or using Pota. Focal) to find articles where that sentence has been used elsewhere. By focusing on a single sentence like this you’re incidentally learning a new aspect of grammar and new vocabulary while enjoying what you’re doing. I challenge you to give the grammar study a rest until you’re at the stage where you need to focus on your literacy skills. Focus on identifying and learning whole chunks that you can practice using in conversations immediately. Make sure to visit my Essential Language Learning Tools page for useful resources to help you learn languages. Can you help me with something? Support me by clicking one of these buttons (thanks). AP Central – Education Professionals – The College Board. The Largest Course Launch in AP's History. Learn about AP's new course Computer Science Principles, which launched in over 2,5.
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