English is only a language tool, and it should not be a necessary condition for continuing education and talent selection.
College students' English learning revolves around CET-4 and CET-6, and they spend four years learning English, ignoring their majors. To some extent, the current university education is English education, with more and more instrumental and utilitarian colors.
"Our students are very good at dealing with exams. Those students who scored high in TOEFL and GRE exams found themselves afraid to speak after going abroad. What's the point of this kind of exam? "
"At present, English tests emphasize reading and writing skills, and the students trained are often experts in solving problems, but their actual communication skills have not been greatly improved, and most of them are' dumb English'."
As an authoritative English proficiency testing system in China, CET-4 and CET-6 are being questioned and criticized.
On the one hand, because it has become one of the standards for recruiting college graduates by personnel departments at all levels, it is utilitarian in itself; On the other hand, because the teaching administrative department is used to ranking schools according to the examination, as part of the evaluation of inter-school teaching quality, some schools have further strengthened their effectiveness in order to improve the index and link it with whether students can obtain degrees and diplomas.
Recently, at the meeting of the Beijing Municipal Political Consultative Conference, a proposal "suggesting that the Beijing Municipal Education Commission cancel the practice of linking the issuance of students' degree certificates with the results of CET-4" has once again become a hot topic. The proposal was put forward by member Liu Yongtai, a researcher at the Rural and Social Development Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
English education is becoming more and more utilitarian.
For a long time, no matter the professional title evaluation, entrance examination and postgraduate entrance examination, if English fails, it is absolutely impossible. According to statistics, the number of English learners at all levels in China has reached more than 30 million.
"There is indeed a country in the world that is so mobilized to study ABC." At the National "Two Sessions" in 2004, Xie Kechang, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and a professor at Taiyuan University of Technology, once questioned: "The effect of English education now is not commensurate with its input. English education has the widest range of objects and the longest duration in China's academic education system, but compared with the number of people who actually use English, it certainly wastes a lot of valuable manpower and financial resources. "
Xie Kechang believes that talents should be judged according to their actual contribution to society, not according to their academic qualifications, professional titles and English proficiency. English is only a language tool, and it should not be a necessary condition for continuing education and talent selection. The importance of English is beyond doubt. The key is how to learn, how much to learn and how much to learn. In any case, English education should not be a frame that restricts the generation of talents, but a sharp weapon to promote the growth of talents.
Liu Yongtai pointed out that CET-4 and CET-6 have become the baton of universities. Although there is no administrative order, most universities link CET-4 certificates with degree certificates and diplomas. Students' English learning revolves around CET-4 and CET-6, and college learning revolves around English. Four years spent learning English wasted their major. To some extent, the current university education is English education, with more and more instrumental and utilitarian colors.
Yang, chairman of the National College English Test Committee for Band 4 and Band 6, further analyzed and pointed out that the ranking of schools by the teaching administrative department, as a part of inter-school evaluation, can easily lead to simple comparison between schools and produce inappropriate invisible pressure. "For students, the purpose is to obtain a certificate, not to improve their practical ability to use English. They are keen on all kinds of so-called circle drawing skills, but ignore the improvement of their language ability and forget the fundamental purpose of learning English."
The Ministry of Education never asked for contact.
As a matter of fact, CET-4 and CET-6 are voluntary rather than compulsory from the very beginning. As for the connection between CET-4 and CET-6 certificates and degrees, it is entirely the independent behavior of colleges and universities. The Ministry of Education has made it clear that universities are not encouraged to link CET-4 and CET-6 certificates with diplomas and degree certificates.
Professor Yang said: "The original intention of organizing CET-4 and CET-6 is to make full use of the large amount of data provided by each exam, analyze the actual situation of our school and classes, improve teaching and improve students' practical English application ability. However, due to the authority of CET-4 and CET-6, the test scores have been recognized by the society and become one of the criteria for recruiting college graduates by personnel departments at all levels, which makes them utilitarian, which is another manifestation of the sociality of CET-4 and CET-6. "
Yang said that examinations involve a country's educational sovereignty, and various foreign examination institutions have entered China one after another, hoping to get a slice of the education market in China. It is understood that ETS (Education Examination Service) has more than 2,200 staff members, and there are about 840,000 TOEFL candidates every year. The registration fee for candidates to take the exam is more than 1 1,000 yuan. However, there are only 7 staff members in CET-4 and CET-6, 15 professors, but they are responsible for the examinations of 6-8 million people every year. The business cost of Band 4 is only 8 yuan money, while that of Band 6 is only 10 yuan. It needs to complete all the expenses from proposition, paper printing and confidential sending to organizing the examination, marking papers, data processing and publishing the results. Colleges and universities have long gone their own way.
At present, colleges and universities have long gone their own way about the connection and disconnection between CET-4 and degree.
A university in eastern Beijing implements the so-called "fake-linked" mode, that is, it tells students that the CET-4 certificate should be linked to the degree certificate, which is not the case in practice. If students have completed enough credits, the school will issue them with a degree certificate even if they have not obtained the CET-4 certificate. Another university adopts a "quasi-linked" model, that is, students pass CET-4 and the school issues degree certificates.
Beijing University of Technology has been decoupled from freshmen since 2004. Xue Suduo, director of the Academic Affairs Office of the University of Technology, told the reporter that starting from grade 2004, students can get a degree as long as they complete the credits, even if they fail in Grade 4. Xue explained that the real English level is not achieved through exams, but should be solidly trained in reading, writing and listening. "Our students are very good at dealing with exams. Those students who scored high in TOEFL and GRE exams found themselves afraid to speak after going abroad. What's the point of this kind of exam? "
It is understood that at present, more than half of the municipal colleges and universities in Beijing still link the CET-4 certificate with the degree certificate, and those who fail the CET-4 test will not be awarded the degree certificate. Some colleges and universities explain that the education authorities have not explicitly prohibited this, and schools can be understood as belonging to the scope of school autonomy.
Reform is imperative.
As early as February 2004, Vice Minister of Education Wu said that the reform of CET-4 and CET-6 would be the focus of college English teaching reform in 2004. CET-4 and CET-6 will mainly evaluate students' comprehensive English application ability and improve their listening and speaking ability.
After China's entry into WTO and successful bid for the Olympic Games, the society's requirements for foreign language proficiency are constantly improving, which highlights the weakness of college students' communicative competence. It is urgent to study the new college English teaching mode and reform the traditional college English test band 4 and band 6.
According to the current syllabus, reading comprehension is the main goal of college students' English training in China. It also stipulates 4,200 words to be mastered and further words to be mastered. Now CET-4 and CET-6 mainly test students' mastery of English words and grammar stipulated in the syllabus; Paying more attention to reading than listening and speaking failed to detect students' actual English ability. As a result, a student of Huazhong Normal University said, "After learning so many words and grammar, I still can't use them, neither understand nor speak them."
Qing, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, believes that the current CET-4 and CET-6 do not test students' language ability, but their language knowledge and language recognition ability, which is putting the cart before the horse. Nowadays, English tests emphasize reading and writing skills, and the students who are trained are often experts in solving problems, but their actual communicative competence has not been greatly improved, and most of them are' dumb English'.
For the way out of CET-4 and CET-6, Professor Yang Zhizhong, president of the National Foreign Language Teaching Research Association, thinks that the teaching curriculum should be adjusted appropriately and efforts should be made to correct the place where exam-oriented teaching replaces normal teaching; Teaching should pay attention to students' listening and speaking ability; Be good at using modern means, such as network and multimedia.
However, Professor Yang Zhizhong also predicted: "It is estimated that the reform of grades 4 and 6 will not be implemented until 2006."