Category: Intercambio

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TEAP – Test of English for Academic Purposes

Você vai se matricular num curso de mestrado ou doutorado e precisa de um certificado de proficiencia de inglês. Qual será? TOEFL, IELTS, Duolingo?

Existe um exame que é o queridinho de muitos alunos em todo o Brasil: o TEAP – elaborado pela TESE Prime – presente no contexto acadêmico brasileiro desde 2001 a empresa desenvolve e administra exames de proficiência em idiomas. O exame TEAP (Test of English for Academic Purposes) é hoje o exame mais aceito por programas de Pós-Graduação e de Residência das principais universidades e instituições brasileiras. https://www.teseprime.org/

Parâmetros Internacionais

A TESE Prime disponibiliza nove exames, em idiomas como inglês, espanhol, francês e português para estrangeiros, todos com certificados balizados pelo CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference – Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência).

Reconhecimento

Além dos cursos de pós-graduação stricto sensu (mestrado e doutorado), os exames da TESE Prime são aceitos para Residência Médica e Multiprofissional (como o ENARE/Ebserh), intercâmbios com universidades no exterior, processos de seleção e promoção em empresas, etc.

Como é o TEAP?

O exame contém três textos com 10 perguntas cada. Duração de 2 horas e avaliará a capacidade do candidato em ler textos acadêmicos. Isso mesmo. Ao contrario do TOEFL,por exemplo, onde a compreensão auditiva e comunicação oral são tão importantes quanto a leitura, o TEAP só avalia a leitura.

O exame é dividido em quatro áreas principais (embora os textos e as perguntas não sejam exageradamente técnicos e sejam semelhantes):

Biologia/Saúde

Exatas/ Tecnológicas

Humanas / Sociais

Agrárias / Veterinárias.

Há seis tipos de questões – todas com múltipla escolha (5 alternativas):

  1. localização de informação (dica: deixe para responder por último – pois assim vc estará mais familiarizado com o texto)

2. Referência pronominal (por exemplo – “they” in the highlighted sentence refers to … )

    3. Compreensão de Vocabulário

      4. Compreensão detalhada (sentença)

        5. Compreensão detalhada (parágrafo)

          6. Ideia central

            Uma característica do exame que mudou; no passado as perguntas e alternativas eram em português com um pequeno glossário em inglês e português. Hoje o exame é integralmente em inglês – inclusive o glossário apresenta sinônimos em inglês.

            O resultado do exame sai em até 3 dias úteis e o custo, embora não seja barato, é mais acessível para o bolso dos brasileiros: R$ 490,00 (em Março de 2024)

            Conclusão: Vale a pena fazer este exame?

            Claro, SE o for aceito pelo curso e/ou programa da sua Universidade de escolha. Simples, rápido e objetivo. Vc pode tirar de zero a 100 – não existe como passar ou não passar – a sua pontuação vai determinar se você será aceito na Universidade de sua escolha. Este exame também está sendo reconhecido em várias universidades na América Latina e em outras partes do mundo.

            Posso preparar você com um pacote de 20 ou 10 horas (dependendo da sua necessidade) onde as suas deficiências linguísticas serão identificadas e corrigidas.

            Boa sorte com sua prova.

            Cheers,

            Mo

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            Immersion Course – the Return

            Today, one of my students, Isabella, returned after a 2-month-long trip to the US – one month she spent studying English at Kaplan International English School in Chicago and one month traveling across the US – a few days in Seattle, then on to San Francisco and ending her tour in Miami, Fl. “The best city by far was Chicago. It’s vibrant, culturally diverse with amazing restaurants, museums and great music”, she said. Image result for chicago skyline

            Well, she had been very anxious about her arrival at the airport and customs and immigration. We practiced what she should say if questioned by the immigration officer, what might happen and she said it all went smoothly. The only drawback was that she arrived at O’Hare’s Terminal 5 and she had to go to Terminal 1 to catch the metro rail to downtown Chicago. The access information was a little difficult and it was a little bit of a hassle for her to get to the other terminal. From downtown she used an Uber driver to take her to her niece’s apartment at the University of Chicago on the South Side. Image result for chicago terminal 1 subway

            She told me it was a bus commute of around 25 minutes from where she was staying with her niece to the language school downtown. She could observe the wide diversity of people and nationalities and after one week the regular passengers were already greeting her. And sometimes she would call an Uber Pool so she could meet other passengers and try to practice her English. Image result for bus downtown university of chicago

            At the school she was assessed as an A2 student and placed in a classroom with some 15 students from the Arab Emirates, South Korea, China, and Colombia. Her first teacher was a nice man but who spoke way too fast and when she asked for some explanation about a point in the lesson he would not give her an answer. After one week she asked for another teacher – this time it was an Englishman (yes, I know, an Englishman in Chicago – great version for Sting’s song – An Englishman in New York) and he spoke more clearly and pausedly.  Her teacher referred her to listen to Ted Talks and watch episodes of “Friends”. Image result for kaplan school chicago male teacher

            “The biggest issue”,  Isabella went on, “that I had with the school was the lack of a good language laboratory”.

            Since she was familiar with the language lab concept from her years studying English in Brazil she had been expecting state-of-the-art facilities. She commented: “After 3 hours of classes I thought I would  spend at least 1 hour in a lab listening and recording my speech but it was very small and restricted.” Image result for kaplan school chicago language lab

            “Of course, nothing compares to the experience of being in another country surrounded by the language you’re learning, however, I found out that people were not very patient with me. Many people spoke too fast and when I tried to ask for something, for example, they’d say ‘do you speak Spanish?’ ”  

            I asked Isabella if before leaving they’d reassessed her English level at school and she said it was raised to a B1, which she thought was much too soon.

            Academically she didn’t have anything more than what she could have had in Brazil. This outcome strengthens my advice: use your time and money to study English in your own home country and then go to an English speaking country for practice, attend a course in photography, art, whatever, in your target language. The return will be much more satisfying.

            Cheers,

            Mo

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            Study Abroad – a way of escape?

            We always hear at the beginning of school vacations, either in the beginning or the middle of the year, news stories about Student Exchange Agencies /Agências de Intercambio.

            How much of it is news worthy or “sponsored” by the agencies themselves is hard to tell, but there’s no doubt that the interest for STUDY ABROAD programs keeps growing in Brazil, despite or because of the prolonged economic recession and now stagnation since 2015.

            By their numbers

            In a market worth US$ 1.2 billion, The Brazilian Educational & Language Travel Association  (Belta) http://www.belta.org.br/ reports that the interest of people to study abroad for periods between 1 month and 2-3 months was up by 20% in 2018 compared with 2017. It calculates that 365,000 people will be traveling abroad on “intercambio” programs (a 30% increase is forecast for 2019 over 2018).

            The vast majority of exchange students traditionally were between 16 and 25 years old, but in recent years there has been a growing interest with people up to 40 years, not excluding those older than that. And 80% of the exchange students are female, according to the study “EXCHANGE TOURISM: PROFILES OF THE PARTICIPANTS, MOTIVES AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE”  (https://siaiap32.univali.br/seer/index.php/rtva/article/viewFile/5116/2681)

            These short term exchange programs (15 days up to a month) appeal to people who are currently working and will use their vacation days to improve their language skills. They’re using their own vacation time from work (using their own savings or supported by family)

            Intercambio photo 8
            A quick search for “study English abroad” you’ll get lots of suggestions including “study English in Portugal”. Huh? 

            Costs

            Of course how much the program will cost will depend whether the student will stay with a local family, rent a studio, share a room in the dorm, which country and city/town they’ll be going to, etc) … but it can start at US$ 1,800 a month (including accommodation and the course). Airfare is usually out of the equation. Intercambio photo 1

            Reasons to go 

            The main reasons to go on exchange programs are:

            • use vacation time (using their own savings or supported by family) boosted by the feeling “I’m sacrificing my vacations for a good cause”.
            • Have contact with people on the street (sic)
            • Be exposed to the language on TV and other media (as if it wasn’t possible in this day and age in their own home country)
            • work opportunities: many people say know someone who was skipped for a promotion, or missed an opportunity to work abroad, or even lost their job because they lacked English.
            • have fun (not found in the report but most people when asked they’ll say it not as the primary reason – *which I  think is the main reason in many cases, though, wink wink).

            Case study
            Intercambio photo 6 Rosimar

            Rosimar, who is Brazilian,  already speaks Italian and Spanish but wants to study English in Canada in September. She says:

            “I still find it hard to speak English, I want to improve my language skills so I can catch a taxi or order a meal in a restaurant. I believe the investment is worth it all. I’m going to Canada to improve my English and have fun.”

            Where to go

            The Brazilian Student Exchange Agencies highlight that over the past 14 years Canada has been the favorite destination for Brazilian students, because of favorable foreign exchange currency rate, standard of living and a country where English is spoken. The next is the US at 23.1%, and far behind come Australia with 9.3%, Ireland 7.6%, the UK and New Zealand at 3.8% ( The British pound foreign exchange rate is a big discouraging factor for Brazilians).

            Should you go?

            Definitely, go and have fun. Expose yourself to another culture, another language, other worlds. But don’t expect that in 1, 2 or 3 months you’ll be back fluent. It will depend a lot on you but my advice is: study English as much as you can in your home country and then go abroad to practice studying something else or attending conferences in your professional area in English, for example. The results will surprise you.

            Cheers,

            Mo