For students of international programmes, academic language proficiency is a must-have ability, and standardized language test score is an important consideration for universities when issuing offers. In Voice of IB, we have specially invited Alice, who scored 117 in her first TOEFL, to share her language learning journey with you!
G10 Student of Guangzhou Foreign Language School ISA Wenhua IB Diploma Programme
◇ Scored 117 in her first TOEFL；
◇ Founder of Autism Awareness Association (AAA)；
◇ Won First Prize in China Brain Bee National Competition, National Silver Award
Member of HOSA - Future Health Professionals；
◇Member of the International Youth Neuroscience Association (IYNA)。
Immersive Learning
Lays a Solid Foundation
Like most students, Alice's English learning journey began in G1 of primary school. But unlike many students, Alice did not participate in extracurricular tutoring classes to improve her English, so how did she further her English skills?
"I have loved reading since I was a child, and I often read original English books. In addition, I also love to watch English movies. It seems that my English became better naturally and unknowingly," Alice shared. She said that this kind of "immersive input" has greatly improved her English skills, and after entering ISA Wenhua GZFLS IB Programme, she has immersive English learning in school where there are many international teachers and local teachers who graduated from renowned overseas universities, and her language skills have been further improved.
In terms of learning methods, Alice prefers to use associative learning and memorizing to immerse herself in "learning English by English" instead of "rote memorization". Alice said: "Maybe some students are used to copying words to form muscle memory. But for me, this is relatively inefficient. When I encounter a new word, I am more used to looking it up in the dictionary immediately, check the English definition as well as synonyms of the word, and use English associations to memorize the new word." She believes that this method not only helps her learn new words, but also improves her reading skills in the process.
In addition to input, Alice also pays attention to output. Alice often speaks in English with other IB students in school. She said that it was this immersive learning habit and method that laid a solid foundation for her English learning.
ESL Classes Help
Straighten Out the Logic
Immersive learning has greatly improved Alice's English skills, but Alice gradually found that when facing standardized English tests and IB courses, her English grammar and expressions are still lacking, and her test scores are not as good as expected. Alice has always been very anxious about this. She recalled: "The English teacher in my previous school also gave explanations on grammar, but it seemed that I was not able to understand them, so the answers I gave in exam questions were mainly based on gut feeling. But later I found that grammar understanding is still needed in answering SAT grammar questions and in other writing tasks. I still have to face up to the grammar issue.”
This problem was solved after Alice entered ISA Wenhua GZFLS IB Programme. She said that in the IB ESL class in the first semester of G10, the professional ESL teacher helped her straighten out the logic of English grammar, which made her understand the grammar much more clearly. "The ESL teachers in the IB Programme are really amazing!" Alice said, "I did the grammar questions not long ago and found that my accuracy rate has increased many times!"
In addition to English grammar, the ESL class also provides students with knowledge of SAT and ACT. Alice believes that the knowledge and skills taught by the ESL teacher have benefited her a lot. She took geography-related reading as an example, "The geography-related reading that the ESL class is currently teaching is just my weak point. The teacher taught me many reading skills such as finding logical words, which further promoted my reading accuracy."
Excellent Self-management
Makes Her Shine
"Habits of self-management are important in the learning process," Alice said. She said that she is a person who pays great attention to making plans, "Like during the winter break, every morning when I wake up, I will take a small notebook and write down my plans for the day first, which will include exercise plan and study plan for each subject. In fact, there are not many plans for a day, but the accumulation of learning is increasing every day.” She believes that students can achieve significant progress through self-management including time management, task management, academic resource management etc. Self-management is a quality emphasized by IB in its education, and it undoubtedly plays a vital role in Alice's study and life.
Alice's current standardized English test score is already excellent, but she still maintains the state and habit of learning English and strives to become a lifelong learning IBer. In her opinion, reading more books and doing exercise questions regularly are essential. "Reading more books is good for improving our 'hard power'. The two books I'm reading now, Gone with the Wind and 1984, have benefited me a lot," Alice said. The main purpose of "doing exercise questions regularly" is to refresh memory and improve proficiency in coping with exams. For future study, Alice hopes that after overcoming the language barrier, she will prepare for SAT, ACT and other exams in the next step, to make great preparations for further studies in the future.
We believe Alice's sharing could give you some inspiration on the way of language learning. We hope that all students will find a suitable learning method in language learning, maintain a good attitude and high efficiency, and achieve ideal language test scores soon!
