Proficiency Examinations – who needs them? pps

I know several international students can pass differential calculus with no-problem, but cannot seem to get out of freshman English, you must be able to write a... While international s

Proficiency Examinations – who needs them?

“I’m so frustrated!” These were the words of a friend of

mine the other day, and international students on an F-1

visa studying at this university Although he is a junior in

electrical engineering and doing well in his engineering

courses, he has again failed the English Department’s

proficiency examination in composition And he is not the

only one I know several international students can pass

differential calculus with no-problem, but cannot seem to

get out of freshman English, you must be able to write a

500-word essay in fifty minutes with no more than two

“major” errors and five “minor” errors While most native

speakers of English manage to do this after two or three

semesters of freshman English, non-native speakers have

much more difficult time The reason for this is obvious

Non-native speakers needs to spend some of their fifty

minutes looking up new vocabulary words, carefully going

over grammar constructions, and looking everywhere for a

missing third-person S While international students may

have some more original ideas than native speakers, they

may fail for superficial grammatical reasons This seems

very unfair to me It seems clear that international students

should be considered special cases, and therefore the

composition proficiency requirements as now stated

should not apply

The case of international students at an American

university is indeed special First, most international

students are using English as their second language

When it comes to writing a composition, international

students using a second language require more time than

native speakers International students must spend part of

their precious fifty minutes looking up words, checking

over grammar constructions, and rephrasing tricky idioms

Furthermore, the composition proficiency exam is biased

against international students As you know, it counts

grammar errors, which often have nothing to do with

meaning A good example of this is the complement after

verbs Often international students have very good ideas

and concentrate on expressing them Then they fail the

test because they use an “ing” participle instead of an

infinitive For most American speakers of English, the

complements after verbs are automatic; they do not have

to think about them at all Even if native speakers do not

have very good ideas, they can still pass the test because

they do not make any grammar errors Therefore, it seems

to me that international students should not be judged so

severely on grammar errors, but should be judged more

on the quality of their ideas

My opponents might argue that international students

need the level of English proficiency indicated by the exam

to get through their other courses They fear that

international students will fail their math, science, history,

psychology courses if they cannot write compositions This

is just not true First, 75% of international students are

majoring in math and science In these classes, professors

do problems on the board or demonstrations in the

laboratory Virtually no English composition skills are

necessary For further proof, I can give several more

examples, like my friend above, who are proving every

day that they can do very well (A’s and B’s) in their math

and science courses without having passed the

composition test It seems clear that international students

do not need to write English as well as my opponents think

they do But what about history and psychology courses,

courses that normally require a certain amount of writing

skills? Here, too, I can easily show that the proficiency

level demanded on the test is not necessary On the

sophomore level, most introductory courses in history

courses in history and psychology are mass lecture

courses in which multiple choice tests, not essay tests, are

given As long as international students can read the

textbooks and tape record the lectures, they can most

likely pass these courses with no more writhing than a

circle around the correct letter The level of proficiency that

the composition test requires is simply not necessary for

most international students to pass courses in an

American university

Perhaps one may argue that the proficiency requirements

are not necessary for American students, either However,

here I must point out several things First, part of the point

of writing composition is to express oneself well in

language Since English is the first language for most

Americans, they will surely need to have this skill in their

native language And because most native speakers rarely

study composition thoroughly in high school, they really

need a thorough study of it at the college level (Of course,

if they have studied it in high school, they can generally

pass the test with no problem.) On the other hand, many

international students have studied composition in their

own language quite thoroughly in high school If they

passed high school, they can already express themselves

well in their first language So, further practice in

composition is not necessary Furthermore, in terms of

future use, Americans students might need to write well in

English for their careers But most international students

will not need English for their careers when they go back

home; they will use their own language Since they have

studied composition in high school, they are most likely

adequately prepared in composition skills

It seems clear, then, that the case of international students

at American universities is special They are using a

second language, and this fact should be taken into

consideration when the English Department reads the final

proficiency tests Further, since the level of proficiency

required on the test is not necessary for most students to

pass their courses, I would propose that the standard used

to judge international student papers be relaxed or done

away with After all, if students can show that they can

pass their other courses, why should the university block

their way with superficial but often insurmountable

barriers?