Chinese Proficiency Test for ethnic minorities carried out

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, December 20, 2003

Chinese Proficiency Test for ethnic minorities carried out

The Chinese language proficiency test for ethnic minorities in China (MHK) was staged for the first time in Jilin Dec.17. Over 6200 students from China��s Korean ethnic group were the first examinees.

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The Chinese language proficiency test for ethnic minorities in China (MHK) was staged for the first time in Jilin Dec.17. Over 6200 students from China's Korean ethnic group were the first examinees.

Under the guidance of the theories of the second language learning MHK is a national standardized test of the Chinese language level for ethnic minorities in China for whom the Chinese is not their mother tongue in consideration of the special features in the Chinese learning. The purpose of the test is to meet the needs for Chinese language teaching in the settlement regions for ethnic minorities in China so as to set up an appraisal system for scientific evaluation in their Chinese language learning. In this way it is push forward the reform of Chinese language teaching and improve the ability in the use of Chinese language using for the ethnic minorities in their life, study, and social communications.

Ethnic minorities are an integral part of China's education system. The Chinese language teaching in schools for ethnic minorities generally follows the pattern in schools mainly for the ethnic Han group of students. Although achievements have been made in a way, the result is still not satisfactory because the teaching failed in somewhat way to cater to the particular law for second language learning. Students of ethnic minorities are relatively weak in their application of Chinese language.

From the preliminary to the advanced level there are four scales in MHK. The first is for primary school pupils. For ethnic minorities, examinees who succeeded in passing the second level will have no difficulty in the Chinese language learning in full-time secondary schools or secondary technical schools. The third level can be used in ordinary colleges with the Chinese as the language teaching media when they enroll the ethnic minority students. The fourth level is to evaluate the Chinese language literacy of college graduates of ethnic minorities. A corresponding certificate will be issued to those who pass a particular level. The certificates can be used as a reference for departments concerned to evaluate the Chinese language proficiency of the applicant for enrollment and human resource recruitment. They can also help schools to decide whether an ethnic minority student can be exempt from Chinese language learning or a teacher is qualified for his/her job with the Chinese language as the teaching media. What's more is that the certificates can serve to evaluate the performance of Chinese language teaching in institutes.

According to the relevant provisions, students holding the Grade-3 MHK certificate are eligible for studying directly in Chinese-teaching colleges, skipping the preparatory course. This qualification tells the holder's graduation from the preparatory school for ethnic minorities. Students of graduating grade in senior middle schools who've passed Grade-3 can be exempt from the Chinese test for the university entrance examination and their scores of MHK will be added into their total marks of the entrance examination. MHK score accounts for 50 percent of the Chinese test in the entrance examination and another 50 percent is for the test of their own languages. Their MHK scores remain valid for two years.

As learned that from the next year, MHK will by and by spread to Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner-Mongolia, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Tibet, and Sichuan. All are autonomous regions or inhabiting regions of Chinese ethnic minorities.

By People's Daily Online

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