Public supports reduction of English in entrance exam

Bejing’s decision to reduce the proportion of marks allocated to English in the highly competitive national college entrance examination, the gaokao, appears to be an extremely popular move.

A survey by Hong Kong-based Phoenix television – one of the few private television channels permitted to operate in mainland China – collated responses from 220,000 television viewers and found that almost 83%, or nearly 182,000 respondents supported the proposed new emphasis on Chinese studies and reduced emphasis on English in the gaokao, while just 13% opposed the changes.

Two-thirds of respondents said they considered English to be an “additional skill” rather than a core indication of academic aptitude as measured in the university entrance examination.

But respondents were equally divided on whether the reforms, including reducing the weighting of English, would truly reduce the heavy burden of the competitive high-stakes examination for students.

Some suggested that parents would merely continue English language tuition at cram schools to secure their children an advantage for jobs.

Fewer points for English, more for Chinese

The Beijing Educational Examinations Board announced last month that it would reduce the number of points allocated to English in the college entrance examination from 2016 onwards, and increase the proportion of marks allocated to Chinese. Chinese will increase from 150 to 180 points while English will be reduced from 150 to 100.

In addition, after 2016 it will be possible to take the English test twice a year and those who obtain 100 points in the first year of high school may be exempted from the English courses in the second and third years.

The gaokao is conducted on a regional basis and regions other than Beijing, including Jiangsu and Shandong provinces and Shanghai municipality, are preparing their own gaokao reforms, according to official media.

China National Radio said Shandong would cancel the listening part of the English examination but in online comments to the Phoenix TV website, some members of the public called for the reforms to go further than simply adjusting the number of points.

“The area of [university admissions] needs thorough reform,” said one respondent. “In a country where English has been a weakness, instead of thinking how to improve the teaching methods so the most widely used language in the world can be mastered by the general population, it [the authorities] instead thinks of this idea and gives it that pretty name of ‘reform’.”

Another wrote: “This kind of rigid decreasing the points of one subject and increasing the points of another subject is in itself undesirable. Some people are naturally talented when it comes to languages and the decrease in English [points] will no doubt greatly affect them.”

The respondent added that “the blind pursuit of cultivating all-round talent ultimately results in the majority being mediocre”.

“The existence of English in the gaokao is blocking many people not good at English from moving forward in their education,” said one commentator on Pheonix TV’s website. “At present, the vast majority of people in China do not need to use English, so English has become an obstacle to the further education of students of the sciences.”

Too much time spent studying English?

Others said the reforms currently being carried out in Beijing should be carried out throughout the whole country. Hu Ruiwen, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee, said such a change would be a signal to students that they should pay more attention to their native language than a foreign one.

"Students now are spending too much time studying English," Hu was quoted in official media as saying. "In fact, not all of them will or would like to go abroad. On the other hand, their native language is being used in every aspect of their life and work so it's important for all Chinese students to learn their native language well [while] the changes will also help students learn the Chinese language better.”

An English teacher at the high school affiliated to Beijing Normal University who asked to be identified only by her surname, Li, told the official China Daily newspaper that English classes in high school focused on reading and grammar, rather than practical skills such as listening and speaking.

"The change in the exam doesn't mean that English is not important anymore,” Li said. “On the contrary, it means that we English teachers can now pay more attention to encouraging students to love English, and lifting their practical ability in using English.”