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Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @01:16AM (#17325978)
They clearly do. The most explicit example is that ancestry correlates with whether you are a native speaker of the dialect the test was written in.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by Teeer on Saturday June 16, 2018 @03:49AM (#17326472)
But yet Asians perform the best on standardized tests, not whites who comes from England?
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @05:05AM (#17326664)
Do you have any data on white English immigrants who take the SAT? I sure don't.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by toasterlovin on Saturday June 16, 2018 @10:36AM (#17327579)
The children of East Asian immigrants perform better than the children of white Americans. How does the language hypothesis you put forth account for that?
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @12:00PM (#17327908)
1. We don't know that. We know that Asian Americans outperform whites, but Asian American can refer to 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc... generation immigrants.

2. Asian immigrants tend to learn the prestige dialect (the dialect the SAT is written in), so if their children are native English speakers, they tend to learn that dialect natively.

4. Language differences are a factor in performance but obviously not the only factor or the largest factor.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by toasterlovin on Saturday June 16, 2018 @01:09PM (#17328239)
> 1. We don't know that. We know that Asian Americans outperform whites, but Asian American can refer to 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc... generation immigrants.

A quick glance at the first graph on this page will tell you that almost all Asian Americans are either first or second generation:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/08/key-facts-ab...

Key stats: Asian American population in 2015 is slightly more than 20 million. In 1960 it is about 1 million and only about 2.5 million in 1980.

> 2. Asian immigrants tend to learn the prestige dialect (the dialect the SAT is written in), so if their children are native English speakers, they tend to learn that dialect natively.

Is it somehow easier for Asian immigrants to learn the prestige dialect than Hispanic immigrants?

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @09:28PM (#17330445)
None of that shows the rate at which Asian Americans take the SAT, the birth rates of 2.5 million Asian Americans who were here in 1980, or the ages of the Asians who've immigrated since. So saying that we have an extra 17.5 million Asian Americans, and Asian Americans outperform whites on the SAT, therefore 2nd generation Asian Americans outperform whites isn't supported by the evidence presented so far.

However none of that really matters because you ignored my last point.

Other factors such as family income are larger factors that native language.

>Is it somehow easier for Asian immigrants to learn the prestige dialect than Hispanic immigrants?

If it's easier is irrelevant because Asian Americans are more likely to speak the prestige dialect than Hispanics. But to answer your question, yes it is eaiser because Asians have much higher incomes, and they integrate with white communities faster--at least in part because Asian communities are smaller and more spread out.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by toasterlovin on Saturday June 16, 2018 @11:09PM (#17330705)
Yeah, and my original point was that these tests don’t discriminate based on skin color or ancestry. What you’re saying is that different races have different aggregate outcomes, but that that is due to different aggregate income levels. That doesn’t really sound like you disagree with my original point.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Sunday June 17, 2018 @12:06AM (#17330822)
No. I'm saying that income plays a larger role than dialect. Dialect still plays a role. If dialect differences were accounted for, speakers of non-standard dialects would have greater aggregate scores.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by toasterlovin on Sunday June 17, 2018 @12:10PM (#17332957)
But you’re saying that dialect is caused by income!
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Sunday June 17, 2018 @04:06PM (#17334048)
No. I'm saying some of the differences in dialect between 2nd generation and later Hispanic and Asian immigrants are caused by income.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by fiblye on Saturday June 16, 2018 @01:38AM (#17326043)
>The most explicit example is that ancestry correlates with whether you are a native speaker of the dialect the test was written in.

What kind of absurd "argument" is this? If you're testing for a university in America, the expectation is that not only will the test be in English, but the vast bulk of your university courses. And Asian Americans, despite a large number coming from families of non-English speakers, still do disproportionately well. But if the local language is something you struggle with, that local university isn't for you, unless we're also going to argue that degree awarding requires lower standards.

In which case, just throw university in the dump because it's worthless.

If we're at a point where having a majority language and doing important business in that language is bordering on discrimination, this society is lost.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @01:46AM (#17326068)
So you disagree with the assertion that native speakers of a specific dialect score higher than non-native speakers of that dialect--all else being equal?

Or did you just decide you'd rather argue with something I didn't write?

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by colordrops on Saturday June 16, 2018 @02:17AM (#17326175)
Even if it is case that native speakers of a specific dialect score higher, it's not clear that the result is due to language barriers, and could be a correlation with socio-economic groups. That is the point of bringing up non-native speakers doing well, as the test is not even their native language, which is certainly a greater disadvantage than a different dialect.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @02:30AM (#17326200)
So you don't think that there is an advantage gained by being a native speaker of a dialect a test is written in?

The academic consensus is that there is.

The clearest example is that vocabulary is a large part of most standardized tests and native speakers have larger vocabularies than proficient L2 speakers.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by colordrops on Saturday June 16, 2018 @04:06AM (#17326520)
I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that it's not clear that the advantage is so much as to be a relevant factor. I grew up in a very poor minority neighborhood and the language the teachers used in school was the same as the ones on the standardized test, so it's not like I wasn't prepared.

It's almost insulting to think that dialect matters that much considering how much exposure everyone gets to the mainstream dialect.

In China they've got a standard dialect and there doesn't appear to be any advantage for those that are from the area north of Beijing where the dialect originates.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @05:00AM (#17326652)
How much of an impact it has is debatable, but the academic consensus is that it is relevant. If you trust your own experiences and opinions more than the current research, there isn't much I can do to convince you otherwise.

>It's almost insulting to think that dialect matters that much considering how much exposure everyone gets to the mainstream dialect.

Whether it's insulting is irrelevant to whether it's true.

>In China they've got a standard dialect and there doesn't appear to be any advantage for those that are from the area north of Beijing where the dialect originates.

I'd be interested to know what your basing this assertion on. Gaokao scores in Beijing are distorted by families who try to move there from other areas to take the test and migration in general.

Combined with with relative lack of reliable data, I'm not sure how you could confidently make this claim.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by colordrops on Saturday June 16, 2018 @12:15PM (#17327972)
Do you have a link to the study? I'm curious what "relevant" means in this case.

From the beginning I've not denied that dialect can have an effect, only that I believe it to overwhelmed by a sea of countless other factors that cause someone to succeed or fail at getting into college, and I haven't seen any data that shows that it is the prevailing factor and one that truly matters.

The subtext to my comments is that this a debatable point, and I interjected because others were throwing veiled insults and calls of racism at anyone who tries to discuss this, which is an unfair way to shut conversation down.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Sunday June 17, 2018 @12:17AM (#17330854)
>only that I believe it to overwhelmed by a sea of countless other factors that cause someone to succeed or fail at getting into college

Yes it can be and is at an individual level.

If you removed 50 points from every Black student's SAT score just because they were Black, there would still be countless other factors that caused them to succeed for fail at getting into college. Their being Black wouldn't be the largest factor (family income still would be).

But across the entire population, you would see a significant drop in the number of Black students in college.

As to a link: Here's a link and a quote from the abstract of a relevant metastudy

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26090843

"The results showed a negative and moderate relationship between dialect use and overall literacy performance (M effect size = -0.33) and for dialect and reading (M effect size = -0.32). For spelling and writing, the relationship was negative and small (M effect size = -0.22). Moderator analyses revealed that socioeconomic status and grade level were not significant predictors for relations among dialect use and literacy skills."

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by skookumchuck on Saturday June 16, 2018 @03:02AM (#17326292)
How about the math part? Besides, if I was on a college admissions board, I'd give consideration to an L2 speaker if his verbal scores were unusually below his math scores.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @03:21AM (#17326367)
I'm less familiar with math testing in general, but as far as direct effects go (not something caused by language of instruction) my guess is that it would be limited to instructions and word problems.
[dead]
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @04:00AM (#17326503)
Yes. You've correctly read between the lines to discover my hidden, unwritten argument.

All standardized testing should be conducted in the universal language of interpretive dance.

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by jiminy_john on Saturday June 16, 2018 @03:41PM (#17328955)
Solid stuff right here!
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by fiblye on Saturday June 16, 2018 @02:25AM (#17326192)
All languages are going to have dialects. Trying to eliminate that "bias" is going to just result in removing language entirely from exams, unless we decide to make tests for every single test taker. But the point of standardization is to have a solid, uniform goal for all to work towards. And if you're applying to an American university and you have difficulty with what's considered standard American English, you will have far worse troubles in university.

And again, people from families of non-native speakers do well. Generally better than people who only have family who speak the native language and dialect.

That people think it's discrimination is quite clearly silly. :)

Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @02:35AM (#17326219)
It sounds like you really want to be arguing with something other than what I'm writing, so you've just decided to make that happen.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by megaman22 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @07:38AM (#17327017)
There is in all cultures a language of educated discourse. To take an extreme example, nobody ever natively spoke scholarly Mandarin and wrote eight-legged essays for fun. The SAT is less severe, but, yeah, it requires some effort and practice to be familiar with the language and the essay format. Not being able or willing to put in the effort to learn this very accessible information is not a good sign for being able to survive equally or moreso arbitrary environments in university.
Re:Asian-American admissions at Harvard by learc83 on Saturday June 16, 2018 @11:44AM (#17327836)
What is it with this topic causing people to argue with straw men?

>Not being able or willing to put in the effort to learn

This has nothing to do with putting in effort. Across a population, people who grew up speaking a dialect will perform better on a test than people who learned to speak that dialect later.

This isn't a controversial statement.

If your goal is to ensure that speakers of other dialects have equal access to top tier higher education, you will need to account for that somehow.

If you dont care about equal access to speakers of other dialects, then you don't have to do anything.