Pic courtesy of Adam Jones, Phd

The book 1984 was written by George Orwell back in the 1920s. While it is mainly a book about Orwell’s vision of the future, it also offers those who study language an important lesson. The main character, Winston, must understand why two plus two is five. His teacher explains that it is simple, because the party said it was. Four is simply a label, and if the party changes the label, then two plus two is five.

While the U.S. has not been overtaken by the oppressive government Orwell foresaw, he did teach his readers that words are simply labels. What I, as a native English speaker think of as my head, my Swiss-German exchange student thinks of as my Kopf. My Kopf doesn’t change function or shape, just because I call it a head. Words are simply labels we put on the world around us. A foreign language, like German in my case, is simply another set of labels.

So it makes sense, when learning a foreign language, to start thinking with the new set of labels as soon as possible. This isn’t a concept I came up with all by myself, major language learning companies teach it in their courses. Instead of vocabulary lists, with words in the native language on one side, and the foreign language on the other. They use pictures, pictograms, and symbols to demonstrate a words meaning. They simply change the label.

Like when you were little, and learning how to read and write in your native language, the mind starts to relearn labels. The mind starts associating the word Kopf with the same objects as head. Slowly, as the vocabulary grows, or perhaps simply as it becomes easier, thought in a foreign language occurs. It’s nothing that can be forced, but slowly my Kopf is no longer translated to head. The word Kopf is seen and without translation, it is understood. As simply as if the word head had been said, Kopf is thought and said.

This is not a process that can be rushed, or forced. Your mind will think in the foreign language, when it feels ready. All that you can do (at least consciously) is let it happen. It’s a strange feeling, but when it becomes natural, a certain sense of pride washes over you.

A strange thing starts to happen, as foreign language skills begin to improve. Native language skills start to disintegrate. This is especially a problem, when exposed to a foreign language for a long period of time. Sometimes this is in the form of simply thinking and saying Kopf instead of head, in the middle of an English conversation. Sometimes it’s in the form of an English sentence, with German grammar structure. Sometimes, it’s simply speaking in one language, when you meant to use the other.

Learning a foreign language is a process, that is sped up only by spending time surrounded by that language. Perhaps it will only take a week, to begin thinking and functioning in English, perhaps it will take a little longer. Getting to this point in your language skills, is part of the experience of living abroad, and is a skill that will make life abroad much easier.

Stanford University Campus

While it is true that no degree is awarded to unregistered students who partake in this sort of learning, there are still many benefits to listening to free online lectures. International students can gain knowledge in a specific subject area, familiarize themselves with U.S. teaching style, prepare for future courses, and practice English listening skills.

Here is a list of top colleges and universities that offer free online lectures to anyone with an Internet connection.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lectures - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers more free online lectures and courses than any other school in the world. Lectures can be viewed on MIT’s OCW site and on this YouTube channel.

Yale University Lectures – Yale University provides a wonderful selection of free online courses and lectures. Most can be viewed as audio or video and include supplemental learning materials.

Stanford University Lectures – Stanford University provides access to a number of free audio and video lectures through the iTunes Store. Although some materials can only be viewed by Stanford students, most are freely available to the general public.

Princeton University Lectures - Princeton University has an impressive collection of free video lectures on their website. The University also streams special events and sporting activities.

Columbia University Lectures – Columbia University hosts a video gallery of university lectures and events on their website. The gallery also includes photos, captions, and other interesting materials.

Carnegie Mellon University Lectures – Video recordings of Carnegie Mellon’s events and lectures can be viewed on the University’s YouTube channel. The channel is still under construction but is frequently updated with new videos and resources.

Columbia University

University of California – Berkeley Lectures – Every semester, UC Berkeley records the school’s most popular courses and events and then makes them available online. Most lectures are available in audio and video formats.

University of Southern California Lectures – The University of Southern California posts video lectures on nearly every subject imaginable. Videos are available on the universities YouTube channel, which also includes playlists and a list of school channels.

UCLA Lectures – The University of California – Los Angeles offers a nice selection of faculty research lectures on their website. Lectures can be enjoyed as streaming audio or video.

Vanderbilt University Lectures – Free online video lectures from Vanderbilt University can be viewed on the school’s YouTube Channel. New videos are added each week.

Karen Schweitzer is an education writer who specializes in writing about business education. She is the Business School Guide for About.com. She also writes online colleges reviews for OnlineColleges.net.

A quick look at the website of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the developer of the TOEFL (http://www.ets.org), shows that the TOEFL is an important academic English test used by more than 6,000 universities in more than 130 countries to determine whether an applicant has the required level of English to enroll. It is also used to qualify for scholarships, and for graduation requirements.

CC License, Photo by SonnyandSandy

So how do students get a TOEFL certificate? Oops, remember, there isn’t a TOEFL certificate. The TOEFL is currently offered in two formats –Internet based (iBT) and paper-based (PBT) in some locales. The iBT is now the most common format in most countries and in North America. Both formats have similar questions in listening, reading and writing. The iBT also has a speaking section which the paper-based format does not offer except as a separate exam called the Test of Spoken English (TSE). Both formats offer a TOEFL score report, and the examinee copy usually arrives a few weeks after the exam.

There is no established passing or failing score. The TOEFL result simply indicates how proficient an individual is vis-à-vis other non-native speakers of English. Further, anyone at any level of English language learning can take the TOEFL; in fact, the more times you take it the more likely you are to improve. However, considering the cost, it makes sense to take the exam after you have completed several courses of English, and particularly when you are able to read and write at the university level in English with little difficulty (the TOEFL reading sections are passages are developed to reflect university-level readings in any field of study, for example).

“Okay . . . but isn’t there some kind of passing score?” Actually, there is no one, magical, passing number. Each institution that requires the TOEFL has its own admission requirements. Often the standard for a full admission into an American university is the iBT TOEFL score of 80 (paper-based test score of 550). However, a number of institutions have raised that score to 100 on the iBT (or 600 PBT), to qualify for programs that require a lot of writing or to qualify for financial assistance. You need to contact each institution that you are interested in to obtain information on its TOEFL requirements.

To meet most institutions’ TOEFL requirements, you need a lot of preparation. It is generally recommended that you get a strong base in academic English before you take the TOEFL and to do that you will probably need to invest both a significant amount of time and money. As you begin work on your academic English level, you should also look into test preparation materials to learn testing strategies. There are a number of reasonably cost resources available (books, CDs, DVDs, and cassettes) on preparing for TOEFL at most EducationUSA centers around the world. Some resources are created by ETS directly and others by companies which have a long experience in test preparation. There are also some free resources from ETS, test prep companies and others available on the Internet. Google the words “TOEFL Prep”, in under a second you will find thousands of links and resources to search from and use.

Of special interest, YouTube has made steps to provide relevant educational content at http://www.youtube.com/edu. Visit ETS’s new TOEFL channel at http://www.youtube.com/TOEFLtv for TOEFL preparation tips from students and instructors. Keep in mind that while TOEFL Preparation courses often help, it’s counterproductive to enroll in a prep course if your English is not yet at an advanced level.

Finally, if you don’t do well on your first go around, don’t despair. Go back get more English language training. Invest in your future with a solid base in English. Once you have taken one international exam, you will have a better understanding of the test strategies, so now you need to concentrate on perfecting your language skills. Good luck on your journey!

Ms. Sabrina Faber is an international education, development and training professional with a special interest in the Middle East and in particular Yemen. For nearly fifteen years, she has managed international exchange programs, including the prestigious U.S. Department of State Fulbright Foreign Student program for students from Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen.  Ms. Faber has extensive experience working in Yemen and on consultancies in the Arabian Gulf states. She is the author of numerous articles on international education and training and maintains a blog, http://planetecole.blogspot.com. She is currently preparing research on Yemeni human resource in the 21^st century.

Scholarship info:

International and Undocumented Student Scholarship $1,000 Deadline 7/15/2009
Live abroad and want to study in the US? Does your citizenship status prevent you from enrolling as a US student? myUsearch will award a $1000 scholarship to the student who can best answer how the completion of a US degree will impact their life, their family and their home community.

The scholarship is open to any students who have completed the myUsearch matching questionnaire, are NOT a US citizen and will begin their first semester at an accredited US undergraduate institution on or before October 1, 2010 (transfer students are also eligible). Start scholarship application

Let us know if you are chosen for the scholarship and good luck!

As with applications to any college, you must research the university you are applying to, making sure they are properly accredited and offer the degree you are seeking.  This can be a little more difficult to do with online only universities as the website may appear very professional and legitimate – while the school may offer a degree that may not be fully recognized.

However, many large and prestigious schools such as Columbia and Harvard now offer undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs that are fully online, giving students unable to travel to the US a great opportunity.  While these programs are not inexpensive, sometimes costing the same as an on-campus experience, they may allow you to attend college without leaving home. We encourage you to read through the university’s offerings, to calculate the costs, and to see whether you would benefit from a traditional campus experience before choosing a program to commit to.

One thing to remember, online degrees are not an “easy” way to receive a bachelors or masters, they are just as much work and effort as attending class in person. You will be expected to “attend” class, take exams, complete group projects, and interact with your classmates, if you are unprepared, your grades will reflect that. Online degrees can be the answer for many students, but as with everything you must study the positives and negatives before deciding on your course of action.