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Chinese Universities Drop English Requirement
By CALVIN YANG
Chinese universities drop English exam requirement
Some top universities in China are no longer requiring an English test as part of their recruitment exams, according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency. At some universities, engineering and science applicants now are required to take only mathematics and physics examinations, while arts applicants will need to take only tests in Chinese and mathematics, Xinhua reported March 16, the same day that many universities held their own recruitment examinations.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 03-29-2013 at 05:24 PM..
Reason: LINK and snippet (no more then 3 sentences) please.
So China has now become so affluent they can afford to "dumb down" their college admission requirements. That sure was fast, but I guess it happens to everyone.
So China has now become so affluent they can afford to "dumb down" their college admission requirements. That sure was fast, but I guess it happens to everyone.
Those are top universities. The students certainly have a decent command of English.
They just want to be more focused: math and physics for STEM students; and math and Chinese for arts students.
So China has now become so affluent they can afford to "dumb down" their college admission requirements. That sure was fast, but I guess it happens to everyone.
Chinese educators have no idea how to teach English. In the past decades, "strict" English requirement for admission was adopted but less than 1% students turned out to be proficient in English.
So they decided to give up. English proficiency is unattainable.
Chinese educators have no idea how to teach English. In the past decades, "strict" English requirement for admission was adopted but less than 1% students turned out to be proficient in English.
So they decided to give up. English proficiency is unattainable.
Compared to Japanese and Koreans, the English proficiency of Chinese students is not really too bad.
The east is the east, their languages have zero similarities with English.
I was amazed when I visited China how few people spoke English. Not that we expected citizens to be bi-lingual, but from traveling to other parts of the world, it was surprising. When my daughter taught there she told us that she would go for days without hearing English from anyone other then her roommate or her few ex-pat friends. The school where she taught gave lip service to teaching English, but they really just wanted bragging rights that they had a native English speaker.
Chinese educators have no idea how to teach English. In the past decades, "strict" English requirement for admission was adopted but less than 1% students turned out to be proficient in English.
So they decided to give up. English proficiency is unattainable.
Well, English can be darn confusing, even for native speakers. English is also taught in a "formal" manner, which is completely different from how English speakers actually speak and/or write English. Growing up in California, I took Spanish as it seemed the most logical foreign language for me to learn. Most Spanish-speaking students took Spanish, too, which I thought was silly until I realized the Spanish we are taught at American institutions is actually the Spanish from Spain, which is different from the Spanish in Mexico, or Columbia. Native Spanish speakers could easily point out those who learned Spanish from a textbook from those who learned it from real-life interactions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by toobusytoday
I was amazed when I visited China how few people spoke English. Not that we expected citizens to be bi-lingual, but from traveling to other parts of the world, it was surprising. When my daughter taught there she told us that she would go for days without hearing English from anyone other then her roommate or her few ex-pat friends. The school where she taught gave lip service to teaching English, but they really just wanted bragging rights that they had a native English speaker.
I knew people who taught English in foreign countries. Essentially, they taught American English to those who already had a decent understanding of English to begin with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jasper12
Our own top universities do not have foreign language requirements either.
I am not sure about the top U.S. universities, but there are some that do require a foreign language. However, it is more common for a particular major to require it, not the entire school. One school I was looking at required two years of foreign language or proof of proficiency for a BS in Biology, and all BA in Biology programs that I was aware of also required two semesters of foreign language in lieu of the extra biology courses required for the BS.
STEM students wishing to continue on into graduate school used to need proficiency in a foreign language-most often Latin- as required by admissions, but that has since been dropped.
I knew people who taught English in foreign countries. Essentially, they taught American English to those who already had a decent understanding of English to begin with.
My daughter taught in an elementary school. I know many college grads that do a year of teaching English in an Asian country and it's not for adults. My daughter did have a couple of private students, one a young girl and another an adult who wanted to learn conversational English.
I agree that Chinese and English are about as far from one another as you can get.
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