Chinese Testing Chinese

I just talked to someone who had taken the BEC exam, a business English test that rewards passing students with a certificate. The certificate is mostly used to label how well you know English, but it sure looks good on a resume! While talking about this test, though, I heard something a little disturbing. The proctor, during the oral portion of the test, asked, “How are you capable of?” The student wasn’t sure what to say, because the word “how” threw her off, so she simply replied, “Uh… good?”

The sad part is, the teacher was just reading the question from a book. So the book was already flawed, and the teacher’s English wasn’t good enough to correct it? How is it even fair, then, for her to pass out grades for such an expensive and important exam? Later on, the proctors have students talk to each other while they observe. I can only imagine that, while one student completely confuses the other with improper English, the teacher follows along perfectly and marks down the wrong person.

6 December 2009 | Teaching | Comments | Home

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