Interactive vocabulary software for a teenaged ESL student?
April 1, 2010 8:28 AM Subscribe
Interactive vocabulary software for a teenaged ESL student who wants to prepare for the SAT but still needs to learn pre-SAT level vocabulary?
My sister is beginning to study for the SAT but I'm concerned that her English vocabulary is not developed well enough yet for her to learn SAT-level words.
Background: She was adopted from Russia at 12, is now 19, and graduated from high school a year ago. She took a remedial English class (two levels down from English 101) at community college last semester but flunked it. Although we (our parents and me) think that she'd be better off studying at community college and then transferring to a university in a few years, she really wants to go to university ASAP because that's where her friends are. So, to get in she'll need to do well on the SAT, and to do that, she's going to need to buckle down and study hard. Whether she's motivated enough to do that remains to be seen, but we'd like to be supportive and at least ensure that she has the appropriate study tools to achieve her goal.
Her biggest academic challenge -- in all subjects -- has always been her limited English vocabulary. Unfortunately, she's gotten good at pretending that she understands what's going on even when she doesn't and is somewhat defensive about her language deficiencies, so it's difficult to get a good read on what level of words she should be studying. She's got a ton of SAT vocabulary prep books, but, based on her bored and annoyed expression as she flips aimlessly through them, I don't think that they're a good match to her current needs or learning style. And she needs something more intensive and structured than the "read a lot and look up words you don't know" approach.
I think that she would learn best from some sort of interactive vocabulary tutor software that gives diagnostic exams and then tailors its lessons to specifically the words she needs to learn. Given that we're not really sure what her current level is, something that starts around the middle school level but goes up through the SAT prep level (or a series of programs that cover that range) would be ideal. Also, it would be best if the program is sophisticated enough to teach actual mastery of the words and not just the passing, recognition-level knowledge sufficient for process-of-elimination guessing a 70% on a multiple-choice quiz, because she needs to learn these words for actual use in college and life and not just for the SAT.
Any recommendations? Thanks!
My sister is beginning to study for the SAT but I'm concerned that her English vocabulary is not developed well enough yet for her to learn SAT-level words.
Background: She was adopted from Russia at 12, is now 19, and graduated from high school a year ago. She took a remedial English class (two levels down from English 101) at community college last semester but flunked it. Although we (our parents and me) think that she'd be better off studying at community college and then transferring to a university in a few years, she really wants to go to university ASAP because that's where her friends are. So, to get in she'll need to do well on the SAT, and to do that, she's going to need to buckle down and study hard. Whether she's motivated enough to do that remains to be seen, but we'd like to be supportive and at least ensure that she has the appropriate study tools to achieve her goal.
Her biggest academic challenge -- in all subjects -- has always been her limited English vocabulary. Unfortunately, she's gotten good at pretending that she understands what's going on even when she doesn't and is somewhat defensive about her language deficiencies, so it's difficult to get a good read on what level of words she should be studying. She's got a ton of SAT vocabulary prep books, but, based on her bored and annoyed expression as she flips aimlessly through them, I don't think that they're a good match to her current needs or learning style. And she needs something more intensive and structured than the "read a lot and look up words you don't know" approach.
I think that she would learn best from some sort of interactive vocabulary tutor software that gives diagnostic exams and then tailors its lessons to specifically the words she needs to learn. Given that we're not really sure what her current level is, something that starts around the middle school level but goes up through the SAT prep level (or a series of programs that cover that range) would be ideal. Also, it would be best if the program is sophisticated enough to teach actual mastery of the words and not just the passing, recognition-level knowledge sufficient for process-of-elimination guessing a 70% on a multiple-choice quiz, because she needs to learn these words for actual use in college and life and not just for the SAT.
Any recommendations? Thanks!
Quizlet
I use this extensively for SAT and pre-SAT. If you'd like to see my sets, MeMail me and I can give you a password.
It's free and awesome, and my students average about 760 on the SAT Critical Reading section.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:31 PM on April 1, 2010
I use this extensively for SAT and pre-SAT. If you'd like to see my sets, MeMail me and I can give you a password.
It's free and awesome, and my students average about 760 on the SAT Critical Reading section.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:31 PM on April 1, 2010
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I happened to use it for fun while studying for other sections of the GRE and noted a significant improvement (+100 points) in my verbal score. If she's interested, she could set goals of donating X number of grains per day.
Good luck!
posted by wiskunde at 1:53 PM on April 1, 2010