Unexpectedly, the essay questions of this year's CET-4 English exam will also become a hot topic in the circle of friends.
In the second half of 2023 National College English Test held last weekend, many candidates did not recognize the word "submission" in the essay question, which led to difficulty in reviewing the questions, poor writing performance, and some even wrote completely off. After walking out of the examination room, many candidates shouted that the exam questions this year are too difficult!
Aside from the discussion of the difficulty of the exam questions, the reason why an English word transcends the exam question and becomes a topic is not unrelated to the public's mentality towards the current English learning Xi. With the popularization of English education and the advent of AI translation software, how should you learn English?How to take the test?Where should university English teaching go?
When you see this word, the first thing that comes to mind is "give in"?
According to the memories of some netizens, this year's college level 4 English essay is titled: suppose your university news*** is inviting submissions from students for its coming edition on a campus event that has impressed them most(Something to the effect that your college newspaper is inviting people to "contribute" to write about something that impresses you the most on campus.) ）
For the word submission in the test question, many candidates think that it is too rare and unfamiliar, so the examination question becomes a guessing question. Some people interpret it as "surrender, surrender" and write a "surrender letter" with enthusiasm, and some candidates mistakenly understand submission as a certain person, so they write a letter starting with "dear submission". As many candidates and netizens contributed a variety of laughable essay ideas on the Internet, submission quickly changed from a word to an Internet hot meme.
Talking about this year's essay question, Zhang Jie, director of the Foreign Language Teaching Department of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, explained that submission is a polysemous word, which has the meaning of "submission and surrender" and the meaning of "submitting opinions and opinions". ”
However, netizens who play memes have other opinions. Some people bluntly said that they feel that the fourth and sixth level exams of the university seem to be getting more and more difficult year by year, "I scored more than 600 points in the exam in 2007, and it may be difficult for me to pass now";Another person left a message, "When I see this word, the first thing that comes to mind is submission." In addition, a lot of discussion also points to the proposition itself: Is it really necessary for the CET-4 essay question to examine the meaning of familiar words?
In this regard, Wu Yun, dean of the School of Foreign Chinese at Tongji University, said that in fact, as a verb derivative of the word submission, I believe that more students are more familiar with submit, and the common "submit" button on mobile phones and computers is submit. In addition, for candidates who have some research foundation and follow academic journals, the sentence "invite submissions from xx" is very common, and many journals use this sentence to invite authors to submit. ”
Netizen comments. After saying goodbye to "dumb English", how to learn and apply it?
As the discussion continued, an English composition question also ignited the public's attention and rethinking about the Xi of English learning. Indeed, with the development of the times and the advancement of technology, the English proficiency of college students today is generally high. However, in this context, how to effectively carry out English teaching has also become a real problem.
In the field of university English teaching, more and more front-line teachers have begun to accept the view that since students' English proficiency is higher than in the past, the requirements of large-scale standardized tests need to keep pace with the needs of students. In interviews, a number of experts said that compared with ten years ago, the current college English test has indeed shown a trend of "emphasizing academics and traditional culture", that is, the test questions have shifted from simply examining daily general expressions to focusing on academic English communication and English writing ability. This shift may be the reason why some students feel that the difficulty of the exam questions has increased.
In fact, compared with the changes in the difficulty of college English tests and teaching, more "passers-by" are also trying to find the deeper reasons behind the phenomenon of many candidates being rejected by submissions. Some experts said bluntly: after bidding farewell to "dumb English", how to help more young people learn to use English, this year's essay questions also have a question for college English teaching.
Shan Jianguo, deputy dean of the School of International Business and Foreign Languages at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said: "In the final analysis, the results of English learning Xi are not based on test results, but on the ability to apply them in practice. Zhang Jie also said that in colleges and universities, the ability to read English literature and the ability to write academic ** in English is the basic skill for engaging in scientific research. Students with excellent external communication skills and cross-cultural communication skills are also more outstanding in both the workplace and in their studies. This further suggests that although everyone can speak a few words of English today, how to help students speak authentically and use it freely, the task of teaching English in colleges and universities has not only not become lighter, but has a long way to go.
Another expert said that in recent years, due to multiple factors such as the reduction of compulsory credits in college English, the cancellation of the university's cancellation of the English level 4 and 6 test linked to the degree, and the development Xi of AI translation technology, there is indeed a decline in students' enthusiasm for learning English in universities. Xi burnout also triggers the post-exam feeling of "difficult exam questions" to a certain extent. But on the other hand, both universities and workplaces have put forward high requirements and expectations for students' English proficiency.
At present, we should pay more attention to how to better stimulate students' enthusiasm and initiative in learning Xi foreign language than teaching and testing. Zhang Lijun, a teacher at Shanghai Wai Chinese University, said.
Author: Wu Jinjiao.
Text: Wu Jinjiaotu: Internet screenshot editor: Chu Shuting Responsible editor: Fan Liping.
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