Faked placement might hve their logic

[atacama at global.co.za]

Trying to enter at the elementary level might have a very good reason,
besides trying to obtain high marks with little effort.

Take my case: I am what would be called a Russian-language
heritage speaker, born of Russian/German parents in Berlin,
with home language Russian & some German, and then entered
the British school/university system.

Although my spoken Russian and German were excellent, I didn't
really understand grammar at all.   I was pushed into the higher
classes, eventually obtained a degree - but I am still extremely
sorry that I never had elementary classes where simple grammar is
taught..... I now do high level translations, but don't really
understand grammar.

I also spoke Spanish, but had the good fortune to re-start it at
elementary level in London thus obtaining a good foundation of grammar,
which I really think is essential in any language.

I would suggest for students in such a position to be give
crash courses in basic language before they proceed to higher
levels.

V Bell. 






Original Message:
-----------------
From: Prof Steven P Hill s-hill4 at UIUC.EDU
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 04:28:42 -0600
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] "Faked" placement scores from native speakers


Dear colleagues:

I suspect that as long as universities rely on an "honor system" when
giving 
placement  tests to high-school seniors, there will be some danger of faked 
low placement scores.  (Russian-born youngsters,  native speakers of
Russian, 
may try to score very low, hoping to be placed in university sections of
"Russian 
101," the lowest elementary level.) Their motivation for faking a low score
would 
be to get an "easy A+" at the lowest university level,  without doing much
work.  
That  in turn can have the unfortunate side-effect of discouraging the
traditional 
students (native speakers of English), who enrolled in that same "101"
section 
and find it impossible to compete with the "fakers."

One way to try to deal with this problem, probably well known to most of
our 
colleagues, is for the admissions office of the US university to note in
its 
transcript records the place of birth and the age at which the
newly-admitted 
"heritage learner" entered the US (if so indicated).  Thus having
identified those 
students who had spent a number of years in the Russian school system, the 
university can notify the newly-admitted heritage learners that if they
enroll in 
"Russ. 101" or "103," etc.,  they WILL RECEIVE NO UNIVERSITY CREDIT  (even
if 
they  get an easy A+).  It would  be hoped that potential "fakers" would
thus 
be motivated to enroll directly in ADVANCED levels (e.g., 200- or 300- or
400-
level), i.e., the lowest level at which they CAN receive university credit.

The same approach could apply, for example, to Latin-American  immigrants, 
presumably native speakers of Spanish, who should not be eligible to
receive 
any university credit for going back and taking "Span. 101 or 103," etc.  
Or, 
say, a mature 28-year-old freshman enrollee in "ROTC 101" (elementary
military 
officers training), whose transcript records would reveal that he/she had
served 
10 years (age 18-28) on active military duty, as high-ranked as 1st 
lieutenant  
-- and thus should not be eligible to receive any credit for going back and 
taking ROTC 101 or 103, etc.   

No panacea, but it might help.... -- Steven P Hill, University of Illinois.

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