Do We Need Another Chinese Proficiency Test?

Do We Need Another Chinese Proficiency Test?

LI SHIGONG

A new Chinese proficiency test, the Hanyu Nengli Ceshi (HNC), made its debut nationwide on December 24,2011. The pilot run of the test was held at 13 venues on the Chinese mainland and 2,442 people sat the test. In the future, the test is likely to be held twice a year in more venues.

Different from the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) test, which aims to evaluate the Chinese language skills of non-native speakers, the HNC test is mainly designed for native speakers and is applicable to all who use Chinese in their daily life, for academic purposes or at work. Examinees were tested on their listening comprehension, speaking,reading and writing skills. Except for the writing part, the exam was carried out online.

The newly established test triggered a debate among the public. Supporters think Chinese people’s mastery of their native tongue has been on the decline and the HNC test is the government’s response to tackle this problem. A survey conducted byChina Youth Dailyshows that 83.6 percent of respondents think Chinese people’s language pro fi ciency is declining and 45 percent think it has declined to a large extent. Chinese students now spend a lot of time learning English. More and more foreign languages have already entered into Chinese people’s daily lives and clash with the standard Chinese language.The organizer of the test hopes to rekindle the enthusiasm for learning Chinese in young people.

On the other hand, opponents think it will become another chance for some institutions to make money via exams. If employers use this certi fi cate as a criterion for their job vacancies, it will give students more of a burden than they can handle.

Necessary

Zhang Shiping (news.sina.com.cn): For a long time, foreign languages have been making a strong impact on China’s native language. That’s why the HNC test steps in. We hope to improve the overall language skills of common people.

In the future government departments,companies or institutions can treat this as a vital preference for hiring people. The HNC is mainly designed for native speakers.Foreigners can choose to take the exam as well but they are not the main target when we fi rst designed the exam.

Zhang Yiwu (Beijing Morning News): The HNC test has its own signi fi cance. Such a test can broaden people’s horizons and increase Chinese people’s familiarity with and proficiency in their native language.

After reading and writing in Chinese for a long time, many Chinese people may still not know for sure how good they are at using it.Although not perfect or not entirely accurate,the HNC test can be used as a point of reference. For instance, there are level tests for the game of go, piano and ikebana. People who are engaged in these activities can use the result of the exam as a reference to examine the current status of learning.

Language tests for native speakers are commonly seen in many countries. Chinese is a profound and complicated language that requires lifetime learning. Nobody should stop learning. The HNC test is a stimulus and benchmark when people want to see how good they are at the language after learning for a long time. So far, there haven’t been any compulsory rules for the HNC certi fi cate. The meaning of the test is encouraging people to learn Chinese in daily life.

Yin Weiguo (Tianjin Daily): It’s really necessary to have this test designed for native speakers because of the declining of Chinese language ability. After a certain period of time I think it can be used for a compulsory course for all college students.

Recently, the expression and application of Chinese in our country have been more and more vulgar and non-standard, causing deep worries among linguists.

The Chinese language ability of common people has been declining for several reasons.First, we have been over-emphasizing the importance of learning foreign languages,such as English, and ignoring our own native language. Second, the popularity of Internet language has destroyed the accuracy of standard Chinese. Although perky, funny and adaptable, Internet language is mostly nonstandard and inaccurate.

We should improve the overall language ability of today’s Chinese people, starting from the HNC test.

Unnecessary

Sun Liqun (news.ifeng.com): There are too many exams and certi fi cates in Chinese society.If we add another test, isn’t it another burden to people? In most situations, where there are exams, there will be benefits. So we are wondering whether the new HNC test will become another exam designed for gaining economic pro fi ts. Countless companies that offer preparation courses for various tests boom and students have to waste a lot of money and energy to make preparations for those exams.

Improving native speakers’ language ability is important but it shouldn’t rely on tests.The more important task is to build a culture for everyone to cherish their mother tongue.

Xiong Bingqi (http://edu.ifeng.com): At the very beginning, the College English Test(CET) was designed to improve people’s English learning. But several years later, those certi fi cates gradually became compulsory for college students’ graduation, and the passing rate of those tests became a vital index for evaluating universities. People are now worried the new HNC test will repeat the old path of CET and secretly become another compulsory certi fi cate for college students.

The worry can be con fi rmed by the pilot run of the test. Most examinees are college students rather than volunteers recruited in public. In the future, if it develops to be a compulsory test, it will create economic interests for a group of people and add to more burdens to college students.

Wang Chuantao (www.people.com.cn):Once a language exam becomes a threshold or compulsory, it will turn utilitarian.

There are four parts for the newly established HNC exam. Most exam-takers complained that the test is disorganized and the writing part of it strongly resembles the civil servant recruitment exam.

No language can be kept stable by exams, let alone prospering and developing in the rigid exam system. For the Ministry of Education, it should fi nd a way in accordance with the characteristics of development of language rather than using exams to promote and regulate its development. Otherwise, it will go the other way around. In all, HNC is an exam destined to fail.

Nan Shuo (www.fjsen.com): As our native language, Chinese has been used for daily communication for most of our lifetime and the communication itself is an important way of learning. Besides, the development of any language should keep up with the times.Communication in real life is the best teacher for learning a language.

Several celebrity writers said they would fail in the exam even though their articles are used for the test. So how much faith can we have in this test? There is little significance to have another Chinese pro fi ciency test. Besides, there are referential answers for the exam but language shouldn’t be restrained by standard answers.

Another worry is that an economic interest chain will be built based on this exam. If some occupations take this as a threshold, this will be a larger bene fi t chain.

The most important thing for improving people’s overall Chinese language proficiency is communication. Encouraging learning by producing more exams is a wrong method. The most possible consequence probably is giving a group of people a chance to dig gold in this area instead of saving the declining language. The exam is destined to be the pursuit of economic bene fi ts of some people in the end.