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Re: 留 澳 洲 學 生 英 語 差
From SCMP
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
'F' for HK students in English proficiency stakes
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Sydney and ALBERT WONG
More than two in four Hong Kong Chinese students granted permanent residency in Australia after graduating from its universities last year did not have competent English language skills, research released yesterday shows.
Data collated from immigration tests carried out when the graduates applied for permanent residency visas showed 42.9 per cent of the Hong Kong students failed the language competency tests, only slightly better than the 43.2 per cent from the mainland who failed it.
The Hong Kong results were worse than those of Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Students from India and Singapore performed the best, with only 17.3 and 17.8 per cent failing the tests.
The study, conducted by Bob Birrell, from Melbourne's Monash University, said the graduates tested had enough command of the language to cope in most situations.
"But people who have reached this standard are still not capable of conducting a sophisticated discourse at the professional level," it said.
Professor Birrell's report also said there was "a mountain of anecdotal material" that many overseas students struggled to meet their course requirements and that universities coped by lowering the English demands of the course.
Last month, a Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce poll on the city's business competitiveness found 60 per cent of 206 companies said they were dissatisfied with English-language skills in Hong Kong.
Citing views from a professor at Stanford University, former security chief Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said in September that English-language proficiency was on the decline. "One hears complaints about the poor command of English from local graduates from multinationals and our own local employers," she said.
Nigel Bruce, principal instructor at the University of Hong Kong's English Centre, said the results were another indicator of the declining standards in Hong Kong.
However, Democratic Party lawmaker for the education constituency, Cheung Man-kwong, said the Australian figures could not be taken as a general representation of Hong Kong standards.
Mr Cheung said most elite Hong Kong students chose universities in Britain or the United States, or chose not to go abroad.
Australian Education Minister Julie Bishop called Professor Birrell's survey an "extraordinary attack" and said the nation's universities only offered places to international students who had reached international language benchmarks.
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