Xinhuanet Beijing, December 19 (Han Jiahui) On December 15, Anhui Education Admissions Examination Institute issued a notice to clarify that the national English proficiency test in Anhui Province will stop in 2017. The basis of this notice is that in the implementation opinions on deepening the reform of the examination enrollment system issued by the State Council in 2014, the goal of foreign language examination reform is clearly put forward, that is, a modern foreign language assessment system with unified standards and multiple functions will be basically built by 2020. So, how is the construction of this evaluation system progressing now? After the completion of the new evaluation system, do you still have the CET-4 and CET-6 certificates? Do you need to retake them?
— — What is the National English Test?
The Public English Test System (PETS) is a non-academic English certificate test for all citizens. It is sponsored by the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education, and the social examination offices of local education examination institutes are responsible for its implementation. PETS is not limited by occupation, household registration and education level, and its certificate level is divided into PETS-1 to PETS-5, which is an important proof of the English level of social people and part-time students, and also the main basis for recruiting personnel and measuring the English level of on-the-job personnel in enterprises and institutions at all levels.
Compared with CET-4 and CET-6, PETS has an oral test, which pays more attention to the candidates’ English communicative competence and practicality. PETS-3 is roughly equivalent to CET-4, and PETS-4 is roughly equivalent to CET-6.
— —In addition to PETS, these are the main English exams in universities and society at present.
TEM-8 (for English majors only) sponsored by the Foreign Language Teaching Steering Committee of colleges and universities (not sponsored by the Ministry of Education)
College English Test Band 4 and Band 6 (CET-4/CET-6)
National Foreign Language Translation Certificate (NAETI) organized by the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Translation Professional Qualification Examination (CATTI) organized by the Ministry of Personnel
Unified examination of foreign language grades for professional and technical personnel in China organized by the Ministry of Personnel.
Cambridge Business English Test (BEC), which is jointly conducted by the Examination Center of the Ministry of Education and the Examination Committee of the University of Cambridge, UK.
Advanced Interpretation of Shanghai English organized by Shanghai University Pudong Continuing Education Center (PCEC)
Those who want to study in Commonwealth countries need to take IELTS, and those who want to study in the United States need to take TOEFL and GRE.
If you take the postgraduate entrance examination, you must also take the English test of the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination … … … …
English majors must obtain CET-4 certificate if they want to graduate smoothly. If they want to engage in translation work in the future, it is not enough to have TEM-8 certificate only. Depending on their region, they need to obtain different qualification certificates, such as CATTI and NAETI, while BEC and Shanghai intermediate and advanced interpretation certificates are more recognized in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and the style and ability of focusing on examination are different in different regions. Non-English majors must have a CET-4 certificate before they can get a diploma. If they want to evaluate their professional titles in the company after work, they need to obtain a professional title English test certificate … … According to different groups of people, regions, and the nature of work, there is no uniform standard for English exams, which can be described as varied. Because many exams have no oral test, they are often criticized as dumb English. However, this phenomenon will end before 2020.
— — English will be tested like this in 2020.
The State Council has set a hard target, believing that with Anhui stopping the national English proficiency test, more regions will join the "stop test" list in the future. Previously, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security issued a notice to clarify that since January 1, 2017, foreign language and computer examinations are not necessary conditions for applying for job title evaluation, and these two examinations are completely loosened from job title evaluation. This policy adjustment will involve more than 3 million professional and technical personnel in the city. In addition to Beijing, according to the reporter’s incomplete statistics, Guangdong, Henan, Shandong, Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other places have issued policies to clarify that "foreign languages for professional titles are not unified" or "foreign languages for professional titles are not a necessary condition for job evaluation". Shanxi, Jiangxi, Changchun, Jilin, Changzhou, Jiangsu and other places put forward that applying for intermediate and below professional and technical qualifications is not required as a foreign language title. Therefore, it is an irreversible trend in the future to gradually cancel various English tests, simplify administration and decentralize power, loosen talents and establish a modern foreign language evaluation system with unified standards and multiple functions.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Education, the construction of China’s foreign language proficiency assessment system is progressing smoothly. The main body of the China English Proficiency Scale has been developed, which is expected to be officially announced in 2017, and the National English Proficiency Test is planned to be gradually launched before 2020.
The newly-developed China English Proficiency Scale will be divided into nine grades. Among them, Grade One or Grade Two roughly corresponds to the primary school level, Grade Three corresponds to junior high school, Grade Four corresponds to senior high school, Grade Five or Six corresponds to universities, Grade Seven corresponds to English majors, and Grade Eight or Nine corresponds to high-end foreign language talents. Each level has different requirements in listening, speaking, reading, writing, translation and knowledge strategy. At present, there are many mature English evaluation systems abroad, and China’s English proficiency rating scale will also be connected with them. At the same time, experts are still working on designing a national English proficiency test. At present, the development team has completed the development of two key breakthrough levels (Level 5 and Level 6), which will be launched and used in due course in 2017.
Some people are happy and others are worried about the upcoming changes. Some netizens who have just finished CET-4 and CET-6 are worried that after the implementation of the new examination outline and evaluation system, their certificates will still count. In addition, some netizens expressed their hope that the new evaluation system can be in line with international standards and get international recognition, so that a large amount of IELTS TOEFL registration fee can be saved.
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