Questões Militares

Computer says no: Irish vet fails oral English test needed to stay in Australia

     Louise Kennedy is an Irish veterinarian with degrees in history and politics – both obtained in English. She is married to an Australian and has been working in Australia as an equine vet on a skilled worker visa for the past two years. As a native English speaker, she has excellent grammar and a broad vocabulary, but has been unable to convince a machine she can speak English well enough to stay in Australia.

    But she is now scrambling for other visa options after a computer-based English test – scored by a machine – essentially handed her a fail in terms of convincing immigration officers she can fluently speak her own language.

    Earlier this year, Kennedy decided she would seek permanent residency in Australia. She knew she would have to sit a mandatory English proficiency test but was shocked when she got the results. While she passed all other components of the test including writing and reading, (...). She got 74 when the government requires 79. “There’s obviously a flaw in their computer software, when a person with perfect oral fluency cannot get enough points,” she said. The test providers have categorically denied there is anything wrong with its computer-based test or the scoring engine trained to analyse candidates’ responses. “We do not offer a pass or a fail, simply a score and the immigration department set the bar very high for people seeking permanent residency”, they say.

    Kennedy, who is due to have a baby in October, says she will now have to pursue a bridging visa, while she seeks a more expensive spouse visa so she can remain with her Australian husband.

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/08/computer-says-no-irish-vet-fails-oral-english-test-needed-to-stay-in-australia

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    An international student who majors in engineering drops by the engineering department office and asks the secretary, “Can you tell me where the English department is?” The secretary smiles and responds, “I don’t know, actually. It’s probably somewhere in the Humanities Building. Do you have a campus map?” The student turns around and leaves. The secretary is taken aback and feels slightly uncomfortable. She wonders why the student left so abruptly.

     (...)

    People who interact with ESL students have commented that some seem to express gratitude excessively for small considerations, even to the point of embarrassing the person they are speaking. Others seem downright rude because they do not say thank you when they are expected to.

(Celce-Murcia, M. 2001.)

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   Innovation in the language teaching field in the late 1980s and 1990s has been stimulated by a special concern for the language learning process. New methods propose that language learning is best served when students are interacting – completing a task or learning content or resolving real-life issues – where linguistic structures are not taught one by one, but where attention to linguistic form is given as necessary. These views of language learning have been informed by research in second language acquisition. Also giving learning a special focus are methodological innovations of the late 1980s and 1990s. These include teaching learning strategies, using cooperative learning, and planning lessons in such a way that different intelligences are addressed.

(Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000)

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Investigators find “similarities” between Ethiopian and Lion Air crashes.

Anna Cardovillis, Kara fox and Dakin Andone

    Preliminary data recovered from the black boxes of the last week Ethiopian Airlines crash has revealed “similarities” to October ‘s fatal Lion Air crash.

    Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crashed March 10, six minutes after take off, killing all 157 people on board. It was the second disaster involving a new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in less than six months. In October, all 189 people on board Lion Air Flight were killed in Indonesia, 13 minutes after take off. Similarities between the two incidents led aviation authorities around the world to ban the use of 737 Max 8s. Investigators suspect the Lion Air crash may have been caused by an angle of attack sensor on the outside of the plane that transmited incorrect data, which could have triggered the automated flight software that forced the plane’s nose down. The pilots first manually corrected an “automatic aircraft nose down two minutes after take off and performed the same procedure again and again before the plane hurtled into the Java Sea.

http://wwww.slashgear.com.

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Halloween

One fall day, as you walk down the street, you might see ghosts, strange animals, and other weird things. What’s going on? It’s probably October 31, or Halloween. Halloween is a day when people go out wearing costumes and colorful makeup.

People think that Halloween started in Ireland during the 400s. October 31 was the end of summer, and people believe that everyone who died during the year come back on that day. To scare away the dead, people put on costumes and went out into the streets to make noise.

Different cultures have different ways of celebrating Halloween. In the United States, it’s the night when children dress up in costumes and go to neighbors’ houses to “trick or treat”, or ask for candy. Some adults wear funny or scary costumes and go to parties or parades. Halloween has become a fun holiday for both adults and children.

Adapted from Interchange.