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| EDU首页 > English > Education in China > News & Events > 2002 > January |
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HK Educators: No Need for English Exit Test for University Graduates
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2002-01-14
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| Local educators have said that Hong Kong's universities have the ability to turn out students with a good level of English language proficiency, and there is no need for an English exit test. The so-called English exit test, proposed by the University Grants Committee, is the compulsory taking of either a local or aninternational English proficiency test for university students before they graduate. Those who passed the test will graduate, while those failed will have to take remedial classes and retake the test until they pass, or they will not be permitted to graduate. Yeung Yiu-chung, chairman of panel on education of the Hong Kong SAR Legislative Council and president of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, told Xinhua Friday that universities in Hong Kong should guard against introducing such a test to the universities. "When universities confer degrees, they exercise their own authority and do their own assessment of the quality of their courses. There is no need for any external examination to assess their quality," he said. He added that on the completion of all the required credits, a student is entitled to the degree or certificate and that requiring a graduate to sitting for an exit test before conferringthem the qualification they deserve is wrong. Huang Yue Yuan, an associate professor of Language Center at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the introduction of the exit test would affect the entire syllabus and may involve providing much ancillary support in English teaching at the university. "We're now teaching English for academic purposes. If the test is going to be implemented, then should we help prepare the students for the test?" she said. Huang said that, in fact, primary education is one of the most crucial factors in one's English ability. Having done research on local students' English capability, she said there was still room for improvement in this regard. Lingnan University has been actively encouraging its students to take either a local or an international English test before they graduate but has not made the taking for the test compulsory. In the past years, part of the university's third-year studentshave participated in the trials of the Graduating Students' Language Proficiency, an English test organized by the Department of English at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. |
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