Need help with Ukrainian student

[Ron Navarro]

I have a student who is preparing for her A+ exams but she is not making much progress even after months of study. She is Ukrainian who came to the US and while she speaks English, it is not without difficulty. She is an intelligent and diligent student, but the language barrier has stymied her progress.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tools, techniques, applications, etc. that can help? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Rick Butler]

Hey Ron:

I would probably ask, first, did she do the ITF+, or is A+ her first foray into certification? It may be that would be of a help to her, if she's having foundational issues. Does she/you have access to CertMaster or TestOut where she can walk through exercises?

I know the language barrier can be an issue, but bear in mind that she will probably have to take the exam in English, as there are only a few languages in which the exam can be written (Japanese, Spanish, I know...). Probably not a lot in Russian/Ukrainian that she can leverage.

Is she taking steps to improve her English proficiency?

/r

 

[Ron Navarro]

She has taken and passed ITF+ in English. She has Certmaster and yes, she is working on improving her English proficiency.

 

[Rick Butler]

She has taken and passed ITF+ in English. She has Certmaster and yes, she is working on improving her English proficiency.

Okay - basic stuff out of the way... is she compiling topics for which she's having difficulty?

 

[Ron Navarro]

Okay - basic stuff out of the way... is she compiling topics for which she's having difficulty?

Yes, we have identified the topics she has issues with but it is a little bit of everything.

When we review verbally, she does real well. But when she does the assessment on her own, she does less so. She tells me that she has to read the questions and answers 3 or 4 times to be able to translate it in her head. This causes her to be short on time and feels the pressure to finish the questions faster.

 

[Carlos Miranda]

Can you involve your school's English teacher with helping with the focus on the exam? To help them with specifics to the exam but from an English instructor help?

 

[Ron Navarro]

Can you involve your school's English teacher with helping with the focus on the exam? To help them with specifics to the exam but from an English instructor help?

We are a private postsecondary IT training school. We don't have English teachers.

 

[Rick Butler]

Yes, we have identified the topics she has issues with but it is a little bit of everything.

When we review verbally, she does real well. But when she does the assessment on her own, she does less so. She tells me that she has to read the questions and answers 3 or 4 times to be able to translate it in her head. This causes her to be short on time and feels the pressure to finish the questions faster.

Okay, so the issue isn't with her learning the material, it's the assessment. And of course, question wording is everything with respect to a CompTIA exam, because of those little details that come out. And CompTIA will tell you that you have to have a conversational proficiency to attempt an exam.

I guess my suggestion is coming at it with as many questions as you can get and drill-drill-drill, working each question she doesn't understand as she goes along.

Sorry, I guess I'm not much help on this one...

/r

 

[Ron Navarro]

Okay, so the issue isn't with her learning the material, it's the assessment. And of course, question wording is everything with respect to a CompTIA exam, because of those little details that come out. And CompTIA will tell you that you have to have a conversational proficiency to attempt an exam.

I guess my suggestion is coming at it with as many questions as you can get and drill-drill-drill, working each question she doesn't understand as she goes along.

Sorry, I guess I'm not much help on this one...

/r

I appreciate your help, Rick.

 

[fischerli]

I have a student who is preparing for her A+ exams but she is not making much progress even after months of study. She is Ukrainian who came to the US and while she speaks English, it is not without difficulty. She is an intelligent and diligent student, but the language barrier has stymied her progress.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tools, techniques, applications, etc. that can help? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Cisco Netacad allows you to create an A+ course (ITEssentials) course in Ukrainian.

 

[Brian Ford]

Cisco Netacad allows you to create an A+ course (ITEssentials) course in Ukrainian.

Yes. I'm a NetAcad instructor and that is an option. I would suggest following Rick's advice short term because the student is probably going to be looking for employment in the US or another English speaking country. They'll need to be able to understand and operate in English.

It will not be easy. Getting any non native English speaking student ready for any certification exam is a challenge both for the student and the instructor. For the instructor it's all about expanding the student's vocabulary. Tough even for English speakers.

It seems like you are doing or have done everthing I would suggest. Good luck.

 

[Jarrel]

A+ exam is available in selected languages only: English at launch. German, Japanese, Portuguese, Thai and Spanish
Reference: https://www.comptia.org/certifications/a

If the student is having challenges in understanding the concepts, then review the mode of delivery, i.e. language.
I echo the advise re: changing the language of instruction.

If the student is having challenges in understanding the assessment, then review the topics with the student .
Unfortunately, there is no Ukrainian language option for the exam, so the student need to practice doing questions in the language of the exam that they will be taking.

Is the student proficient with another language, perhaps?

 

[Tomnetwiz]

I have students that have issues with the assessment questions. We go over the questions as a group, focusing on how to discover the answer.

1. Pull out the negatives from the question.
2. Find the which one of these items is not like the other, maybe the answer or eliminate.
3. Use the which answer is wrong use the X
4. Separate question understanding from the technology.
Can they articulate the technology being discussed.

English as a second language is challenging, native speakers struggle with these questions as well.
I struggle with English as my first language.

 

[YolondaMurray]

I have a student who is preparing for her A+ exams but she is not making much progress even after months of study. She is Ukrainian who came to the US and while she speaks English, it is not without difficulty. She is an intelligent and diligent student, but the language barrier has stymied her progress.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tools, techniques, applications, etc. that can help? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hi Ron. Maybe the translation option within the web browser would help. I've attached a few screenshots of how I did it. I'm not sure how accurate this is but if it helps her understand the concepts in English by reviewing them in Ukranian, then it might help her.

Step1 - Right click in the top bar; Step 2 - Select Translate (and whichever language is showing there), mine said English; Step 3 - Click the ellipsis; Step 4 - select 'Choose another language'; Step 5 - Expand the language options by clicking on the down arrow; Step 6 - Once you selected 'Ukranian' click on 'Translate'; The last screenshot shows the translated page.

Again, I am not sure how accurate the translation is but I do wish you both the best of luck!

 

[PETER HANWITH HORDEN]

I have a student who is preparing for her A+ exams but she is not making much progress even after months of study. She is Ukrainian who came to the US and while she speaks English, it is not without difficulty. She is an intelligent and diligent student, but the language barrier has stymied her progress.
Does anyone have any suggestions or tools, techniques, applications, etc. that can help? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hi Ron if we could have a chat I train black south africans whos first language is ZULU and second English I do get them to pass my recent class 100% .
perhaps we can hook up with Zoom and I will share all the tips. I am considered the best A+ in South Africa Johannesburg not me saying it comptia and training centres here.. So if you want lets maybe I can help you. Peter

 

[Rick Butler]

Hi Ron. Maybe the translation option within the web browser would help. I've attached a few screenshots of how I did it. I'm not sure how accurate this is but if it helps her understand the concepts in English by reviewing them in Ukranian, then it might help her.

Step1 - Right click in the top bar; Step 2 - Select Translate (and whichever language is showing there), mine said English; Step 3 - Click the ellipsis; Step 4 - select 'Choose another language'; Step 5 - Expand the language options by clicking on the down arrow; Step 6 - Once you selected 'Ukranian' click on 'Translate'; The last screenshot shows the translated page.

Again, I am not sure how accurate the translation is but I do wish you both the best of luck!

I like the translation app idea - the only concern is when it comes time to take the cert - it would still be in English. Maybe if PearsonVUE had some kind of translation capability for exams...

The only constraint here is making sure translation software actually translated technical terms properly. I remember one time, long ago, when I was doing a translation and referred to Adobe Acrobat - the translation software, instead of treating "Adobe Acrobat" as a proper English term, translated the words "adobe" and "acrobat" into that language.

One can only imagine what circus acrobats, made from adobe, would look like - a far departure from anything relating to PDFs.

/r

 

[YolondaMurray]

I like the translation app idea - the only concern is when it comes time to take the cert - it would still be in English. Maybe if PearsonVUE had some kind of translation capability for exams...

The only constraint here is making sure translation software actually translated technical terms properly. I remember one time, long ago, when I was doing a translation and referred to Adobe Acrobat - the translation software, instead of treating "Adobe Acrobat" as a proper English term, translated the words "adobe" and "acrobat" into that language.

One can only imagine what circus acrobats, made from adobe, would look like - a far departure from anything relating to PDFs.

/r

Ya. That was my concern too and I guess that's why I ended off my post the way I did. She sounds like she deserves all the help she could get. And also, I would love to know the outcome. I'm rooting for her all the way from South Africa

 

[Rick Butler]

Indeed. I think we need to earnestly think about this as instructors - with CompTIA actually looking into how to extend it to more than just a few languages. If CompTIA is serious about an international reach, this will be a problem that would have to be addressed.

 

[Fanuel]

She has taken and passed ITF+ in English. She has Certmaster and yes, she is working on improving her English proficiency.

Bravo!!