UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1950

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Price 20 cents

Washington, D. C.

Foreword

THE

HE Orientation Center for Foreign Students and Trainees, located at Wilson Teachers College, Washington, D. C., is financed by a grant-in-aid from the Department of State. It is operated under the advice and direction of the National Education Association, the Board of Education of the District of Columbia, and the Division of International Educational Relations of the Office of Education. The Center is maintained primarily to serve the needs of students and trainees who come to this country on fellowships from the United States Government or from their own governments. Since its beginning in 1942, this institution has assisted thousands of foreign students in improving their English and in becoming adjusted to life and customs in the United States.

Orientation and English Instruction for Students from Other Lands has been prepared by Margaret L. Emmons, Director of the Orientation Center, and five members of the staff of that institution. The teachers who assisted in compiling the bulletin are: Mrs. Ellen M. Judson, Mrs. Esther L. McGuire, Mrs. Etta F. McKinley, Jean Robertson, and Mrs. Helen H. Shears. Organizational suggestions and recommendations on content and form were made by Raymond H. Nelson and Thomas E. Cotner of the staff of this Division. The photographs are by Thomas H. Emmons.

The bulletin is for the use of those engaged in the preparation of foreign students who come to the United States to study in our institutions of higher learning or to take training in our industries and Government agencies. It contains information about the curriculum and courses of study of the Orientation Center, suggestions on methods of instruction which have been found to be successful, an appendix, and a bibliography.

KENDRIC N. MARSHALL, Director, Division of International Educational Relations.

Organization

THE ORIENTATION CENTER was established primarily for foreign students and trainees who come to the United States on fellowships granted by the United States Government.

The courses are organized on a continuous rather than term basis so that a student can enter or leave the Center at the time which is most convenient for his program of studies or training. It is hoped that a student who enters with little or no knowledge of English will remain long enough to attain a mastery of the language sufficient for his own particular needs.

Testing and Placement

FOR EFFECTIVE class work it is necessary that the students of a class be on approximately the same level of English proficiency. In the Orientation Center there are four levels of English instruction: beginning, elementary, intermediate, and advanced. The director tests the new students and determines at which level he should be placed with the most profit to the incoming student and with the least retardation of the students already in the class. When there is more than one section at the same level, students can be grouped according to their professional interests.

The tests which are used as guides in making a placement are a speaking test and an English proficiency test.

SPEAKING TEST

While registering the new student, we record on a disk his responses to our questions. We ask him to make complete sentences when answering the following questions:

What is your name?
What is your country?

When were you born?

How long have you studied English? (In primary or secondary school, or university, or recently in one of the cultural

centers?)

What is your profession?

What training will you take in the United States?

Will you talk a few minutes about your work in your country? The construction of his answers, his pronunciation, his fluency or lack of it, and his vocabulary show whether he is able: To answer questions at all; to make only one-word or two-word answers; to form complete, correctly constructed sentences; to give a fairly fluent talk about a familiar subject, e. g., his training and his work.

Although we find it convenient to make a disk recording of this speaking test for the study of errors and for later reference, this procedure is not essential. It is possible to get good results by carefully noting errors as the student answers and by grading him according to these notes. We try not to embarrass a timid student by forcing him to make a recording, but try always to put him at his ease. When we replay their answers, students are usually very much interested in hearing themselves speak. We point out errors in a rather casual manner, and we praise and encourage the student for his accomplishment, trying from the outset to build up his confidence in his ability to make himself understood.

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION

We are in an experimental period in our testing program at present, having come to believe that although auditory comprehension is often the least developed of the student's skills in using English, it is nonetheless the skill most necessary in achieving satisfactory results in university studies and practical on-the-job training. Consequently, the results of the auditory comprehension tests are now being given most weight in deciding into which class a new student is to be entered. We have recently received permission to experiment with a test which the Department of State is developing for testing the English ability of applicants for fellowships. A description of it here may assist others in preparing similar examinations, if they so desire. This test is known as the "English Proficiency Examination."

The auditory-comprehension test has two parts. In the first part, the examiner reads aloud to the students 80 statements to which they must respond by marking an "X" in either a "True" or "False" column on an answer sheet. The examiner reads each statement twice at a normal speed, with no unnaturally clear enunciation or emphasis. The vocabulary used in the statements consists of common words. For example, two typical statements might be: "People in Chicago never eat in restaurants,” and “We usually put on our coats when we feel cold."

The second part of the auditory-comprehension test consists of two short, amusing anecdotes, with ten questions about each. The examiner reads an anecdote twice, being careful to use the same speed and emphasis he would use if he were telling the joke to a group of North American