《中国英语能力等级量表》科学性和适切性研究

A Study of the Scientificity and Appropriateness of the English Proficiency Scale of China

新近发布的《中国英语能力等级量表》的科学性有待商榷,原因有二。一方面,能力等级和描述过于追求全面,不同程度忽视了我国高校大学生能否达到的实际情况。另一方面,等级要求描述去语境化,并没有反映特定专业学习对学生英语能力的需求,也就是说,从满足不同专业的学生学习英语需求的外语教学角度来说,我们并不需要有一个统一的、要求全面的量表,因此,制定统一量表缺少理论依据。量表的这些不足,作为学术探索是可以理解的,但最令人担心的是正在开发的与量表对应的能力等级考试。这种全国统考一旦实施给我国英语教育乃至整个高等教育带来的负面冲击将是难以承受的。

The scientificity of the newly issued English Proficiency Scale of China(EPS) is doubtful for two reasons. It is too comprehensive in terms of the grades in that the target Chinese leaners could not achieve even after tremendous efforts and it is decontextualized as the descriptors of each grade fail to take into consideration the requirement of linguistic expertise needed in students' disciplinary studies. It lacks theoretical foundation when a uniform, nationwide EPS is employed in tertiary English teaching whose purpose is to address the needs of students in their respective disciplinary studies. The real concern is the impact of the EPS on China's English education and on the whole tertiary education if the grade-based uniform national tests have been implemented by a government agency.