Students struggle with foreign language output standards
(Baonghean.vn) - Implementing the National Foreign Language Project 2020, Vinh University has applied the level 3 foreign language output standard. This has caused many students to struggle to graduate.
Unable to graduate due to lack of foreign language certificate
Duy* (born in 1995) - an employee at a store on Nguyen Minh Khai Street (Vinh City) is sometimes jokingly called by his co-workers as a "fake student" of Vinh University.
“I was very nervous during the English oral exam. My pronunciation was not correct, which made me even more self-conscious and nervous, and I couldn’t speak well. But no matter what, I have to review for the next exam to get a B1 certificate and then submit it for graduation. Because I don’t have a certificate yet, it’s hard to find a more stable job,” Duy confided.
Talking about his journey to get an English certificate, Duy could only sum it up with the word "suffering". "I took the B1 test twice and failed to get 50/100 points to pass. The most recent test was in mid-December 2017 and I only got over 40/100. The test has 4 parts: reading, writing, listening, speaking, and both times my listening and speaking scores were not over 10 points" - Duy said.
Explaining his poor English, Duy said that since he was in middle school and high school in his hometown, he only considered it a secondary subject so he did not invest much. In college, learning English became even more difficult because he had a large gap in his knowledge at the lower levels. Moreover, Duy also had little time to practice listening and speaking English because his free time was mainly spent on part-time jobs to make ends meet right from his first year. Another reason was that taking a speaking test in English was really a big problem for Duy.
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| Students need to be more proactive in learning foreign languages, such as practicing and communicating with foreigners. Photo: Chu Thanh |
No missed subjects, good English, even passed the C1 exam, but Linh*, who is in the same class as Duy, still cannot graduate because she cannot pass the B1 French exam. As a full-time English student, in addition to the requirement of achieving a C1 English exam, the school also requires students to have a B1 French exam to graduate.
Linh's problem also comes from here. According to the curriculum, French is introduced by the school starting from the 3rd semester of year 2 and students only have to study French 1, French 2 in semesters 3 and 4. Therefore, when it comes time to take the B1 French exam in year 4, due to a lot of "missing" knowledge, Linh did not get 50/100 points and had to wait to retake the exam next time.
Need student initiativeAccording to Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Dinh Phuong - Vice Principal of Vinh University, starting from the 54th course onwards, all students of Vinh University upon graduation must meet the output standard of at least having a foreign language certificate at level 3/6 (equivalent to level B1 according to the European reference framework). Specifically, the school is currently setting 2 levels of requirements for students: Students studying non-English majors only need to achieve level 3/6; Students studying full-time English must achieve at least level 5/6 (equivalent to level C1 according to the European reference framework) and have a B1 French certificate. In fact, at Vinh University, there have been cases where students had to take the exam for the 5th time to get an English certificate and be eligible to graduate.
In order to create the best conditions for students to graduate and at the same time ensure the quality of output, Vinh University has divided the graduation examination into 3 different rounds. However, the first round of graduation examination only achieved a rate of 65-70%. The remaining number has not been considered for graduation, according to Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Dinh Phuong, in addition to students who have missed subjects, have missed subjects and some other reasons, a large number of students lack foreign language certificates.
The Vice Principal of Vinh University said that students from rural and disadvantaged areas often have difficulty learning and taking foreign language exams, in this case learning English. The reason is that the English learning of students while still studying at high schools is not systematic and not very effective.
To overcome this situation, the school has organized English learning spaces; English clubs have also received active support from the school's union branches and associations... At the same time, Vinh University has also established a Steering Committee with the core being the Faculty of Foreign Languages, determining a specific development strategy that considers English as a tool to help open the door of knowledge for students and lecturers of the school. At the same time, it is believed that the regulation of foreign language proficiency output standards of level 3/6 or higher has had a positive impact on students, helping them realize the importance of learning English, thereby being more proactive in their studies.
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| English in universities is being promoted. Photo: Chu Thanh |
In recent years, along with the development of economic and social life and the process of international integration, the requirement for foreign languages is becoming increasingly essential, opening many future doors for young people. With this trend, the regulation of foreign language output standards is inevitable and practical.
However, improving the quality of foreign language training in universities is not easy, when the process of innovating training methods is still a difficult problem. That is not to mention that teaching in universities and non-language departments has not yet met practical requirements; many young students are still indifferent and have low awareness in self-training their foreign language skills... And while waiting to find a solution, the story of students struggling to graduate because of lack of foreign language certificates will probably be mentioned more often in the future.
* Character names are changed upon request.
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