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Feb 19, 2019 02:57
5 yrs ago
3 viewers *
Spanish term

INGLES ACCESO

Spanish to English Other Education / Pedagogy
Academic transcript from Mexico.

There are multiple English courses such as Ingles Avanzado, Ingles Plataforma and English Acceso.

Ingles Avanzado is obviously advanced English, but the other two I can't discern.
Proposed translations (English)
1 -1 Intermediate English
4 +3 Basic English ("Acceso")
4 +1 English Entry level
4 English for beginners
3 Threshold/Approach English

Discussion

Luis Vasquez Feb 26, 2019:
@Robert

Hi, Robert, I took no offense, mainly because I like the site and the way it maintains a nice level of camaraderie and cooperation. Thank you.
Robert Carter Feb 26, 2019:
@Charles Thanks, and thanks again for the additional investigation you provided. I'll say no more and I'll also remove that earlier comment.

@Luis
I meant no offense, I was simply commenting on the fact that, in my opinion, no guessing was necessary because the term and its meaning were readily visible online. I believe others have also provided confirmation of this with their reference material. Your response to my comment doesn't address that assertion beyond accusing me of indirectly questioning the asker's decision, but never mind. Saludos!
Charles Davis Feb 26, 2019:
Hi Luis, thank you for saying so. You are right, by the way, that commenting on the asker's choice is against the site rules, and I have removed the part of my previous comment that might be construed as doing so.
Luis Vasquez Feb 26, 2019:
Hi, Charles Thank you for keeping this forum so lively, sparking such amicable debate and shedding light when it comes to this sort of traps one finds in translation.
Charles Davis Feb 26, 2019:
@Robert Well, in these situations I try to tell myself that the material is there for future users willing to read the small print.
Robert Carter Feb 26, 2019:
@Charles ;-)
neilmac Feb 19, 2019:
@Charles I'm glad you mentioned that about "Breakthrough" and the other terms sounding a bit odd, I thought it was just me. In fact, I was about to post an extended rant on the subject of such newfangled touchy-feely terminologies earlier today, but thought the better of it. It's what we used to call "SSNW" (Same...er, Stuff, new Wrapping).
Robert Carter Feb 19, 2019:
@Charles That Zaragoza UNAM reference is very interesting, and it would be nice to know which particular college the asker's transcript is from. The link I found makes no reference to those A, B, C descriptors of the EU, so I assumed it was some kind of proprietary scale. Just goes to show that, even when we think we've done the research, we shouldn't always go with the first thing that makes sense to us.
Again, well done, Charles. It'd be nice if the asker could give us some specific context now.
I have to agree with you about those monikers--just baffling to anyone who doesn't actually teach the subject. The A0, A1, A2, etc., scale seems a much better idea.
Charles Davis Feb 19, 2019:
Though frankly "Breakthrough English" sounds pretty weird to me, as indeed do "Waystage English" and "Vantage English". I wouldn't have known what they meant if I hadn't looked it up. "Beginner", "Elementary" and "Upper Intermediate" (not "Advanced", note) are much clearer to the uninitiated.
Charles Davis Feb 19, 2019:
If you look around, Breakthrough, Waystage, Threshold, Vantage, Effective Operational Proficiency and Mastery are quite widely used these days.
Charles Davis Feb 19, 2019:
CEFR This being so, one option would be to refer to CEFR descriptors. There is more than one version of these (in English), but Wikipedia gives these:

A1 Breakthrough or beginner
A2 Waystage or elementary
B1 Threshold or intermediate
B2 Vantage or upper intermediate
C1 Effective operational proficiency or advanced
C2 Mastery or proficiency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_R...
Charles Davis Feb 19, 2019:
Reference Here is the document I referred to in my response to Robert's answer, in which these terms are fully explained. It's from UNAM, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Zaragoza, Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras. See especially pages 11-12 (pp. 12-13 of the file). The descriptors are explicitly intended to be equivalent to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) levels:

Nivel Acceso (A1)
Nivel Plataforma (A2)
Nivel Umbral (B1)
Nivel Avanzado (B2)
Nivel de Dominio Operativo Eficaz (C1)
Nivel Maestría (C2)
https://www.zaragoza.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/LENG...

Proposed translations

-1
15 mins
Selected

Intermediate English


If they were ordered hierarchically as follows: Avanzado, Acceso and Plataforma, I would say that Inglés Plataforma would be Basic English; therefore, Inglés Acceso, would be Intermediate English.

It seems that the issuing institution has a rather commercial- academic approach when it comes to naming their levels, but that would not be strange in this part of the world.

Kind Regards,

Luis
Peer comment(s):
disagree Robert Carter : Post-grading comment: Sorry Luis, but there's no need to guess here. A little investigation shows that this is not equivalent to the intermediate level.
7 days
Hi, Robert Despite the fact that you are not doing it directly, you are sort of inquiring or commenting about the asker regarding his or her grading decisions, which is prohibited here. Moreover, guessing is still allowed here.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Gracias, Luis."
52 mins

Threshold/Approach English

First Step in English.
Something went wrong...
7 mins

English for beginners

I would say

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 mins (2019-02-19 03:08:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"Inglés Plataforma" (the accent was missing) could be "English for students with basic skills"

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 mins (2019-02-19 03:09:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

free translation in this case but that's the idea and let's see what else comes up...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2019-02-19 04:08:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

anyway it's up to you to decide
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+3
1 hr

Basic English ("Acceso")

It's not that hard to find what this actually represents with a little digging online:

ASIGNATURAS PROPEDEÚTICAS H CRED
...
Inglés Acceso I
Clave: IA1-1 5 10
Contenido: Neighborhoods, Cities & Towns; Shopping & E-Commerce; Friends & Family; Health Care; Men & Women.
Inglés Acceso II
Clave: IA1-2 5 10
Contenido: Sleep and Dreams; Work ad life Styles [sic]; Food and Nutrition; Great Destinations; Our Planet.
...
PRIMER SEMESTRE H CRED
...
Inglés Plataforma 1
Clave: IA2-1 5 10
Contenido: The verb be. The simple present tense. The imperative form. Frequency adverb. Personal pronouns. Possessive adjectives and pronouns. There is / there are. Questions with whose. Possessive nouns. The present continuous tense. Nonaction verbs...

https://upaep.mx/templates/intercambios/img/internationalexc...


So, it appears that "Inglés Acceso" is a subject that is part of the foundation course (asignaturas propedéuticas) prior the main degree (or whatever type of course is being offered here, I'm not quite sure, I didn't investigate further). I wouldn't say it's necessarily "for beginners," because it looks like it could be a little more advanced than that.

Incidentally, I would leave the college's proprietary title in brackets after it, just for reference purposes.

"Ingles Plataforma" seems to be an intermediate level, relatively speaking.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2019-02-19 04:47:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Just to illustrate that there's generally a recognized difference between beginner and basic levels, here's the British Council's own standardized classification, (though I'm not suggesting you use these of course, as you have no way of knowing how they'd match up):

English levels
...
There are 6 levels:

Beginner A0
Basic A1–A2
Pre-intermediate A2–B1
Intermediate B1
Upper-intermediate B2
Advanced C1–C2
https://www.britishcouncil.org.mx/en/english/levels-progress...
Peer comment(s):
agree Charles Davis : Why don't people do some research? Just to add to your references, here's a good one from UNAM, which describes them in order and gives CEFR equivalents: Acceso (A1), Plataforma (A2), Umbral (B1), etc. See pp. 11-12: https://goo.gl/ABnsaQ
3 hrs
Oh, well done! I didn't find that, I probably should have dug a little deeper. I assumed it was a proprietary scale of the college I cited in my ref. Thanks, Charles.
agree neilmac
4 hrs
Thanks, Neil.
agree David Hollywood : and good research by Charles comme toujours
2 days 20 hrs
Thanks, David.
Something went wrong...
+1
2 hrs

English Entry level

I think I would translate it by 'entry level'. See links below.
Reference:

http://www.conel.ac.uk/courses/english-literacy-and-maths-numeracy/55-entry-level/152-english-entry-level-1.html

http://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/371150/11-10-07-functional-skills-criteria-fo

Peer comment(s):
agree neilmac : This could work nicely too, as access/entry are synonyms :-)
10 hrs
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