Academic Experience of International Students Studying ACT as a Second Language

Being an immigrant from France, I have had the opportunity to experience the American education system from the junior level to the tertiary level. Generally, it has been a wonderful experience in regards to both academic and non-academic aspects. The education system has enabled me to meet people from across the world and make lifelong friends. I have also thoroughly enjoyed the American approach to the way both instructors and students conduct themselves within the academic environment. That said, there are also various expected challenges that international students still have to navigate within the America education system. Issues and difficulties with writing are likely to compromise the ability of the student to pass the test exams. English and my first Chinese are wildly different languages in almost every aspect including the alphabet, vocabularies and sentence structures.

As a result, my second-language issues with the use of English as the language of command negatively affected my writing skills and performance in various aspects of the ACT test. The main problem with my academic writing as a result of this difference between English and Chinese was in regards to my limited vocabulary. My limited command of English vocabularies hindered my ability to provide a clear and effective response to the questions in the different test disciplines. The main aspects of reading skill and test that proved to be a major problem for me is the issue of pronunciation. The approach to the pronunciation of Chinese words in comparison to those of English is significantly different; which means that people who have grown up using the Chinese language are going to find it challenging to master pronunciations of English words.