• An English class in Jiao Tong University located at the Minhang district in Shanghai, China.

An English class in Jiao Tong University located at the Minhang district in Shanghai, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

The new unified, national English proficiency testing and rating system is planned to be launched in 2017. This will assess the English language skills of Chinese students against nine levels of competence.

The China National Radio reported in November that the Ministry of Education is working on a national proficiency testing and rating system for the English language, which will replace multiple English language tests that are currently existing.

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Examples of these different tests that are implemented currently are the College English Test, the Test for English Majors, and the China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters.

English language students, instructors and experts interviewed by the Metropolitan think that this new unified system will make it easier for them to not only judge an individual's skill on the English language, but also judge how the person stacks up against the others.

The CNR reported that the Ministry of Education decided to unify the existing evaluation system to better cater to the different needs of English learners, teachers and other stakeholders.

He Linzhen, the dean of The School of International Studies of Zhejian University, said: “The former different English tests were not comparable to each other. The new system, with its nine levels and consistent standard across the board, will meet the different needs of industry stakeholders and reduce test duplication.”

The report said that the detailed plan will be implemented incrementally and be completed by year 2020.

The new unified test will be taken by primary, high school and university students. It is expected to be pegged to international English language evaluation systems.

Stanley D. Nel, the University of San Francisco’s Vice President of International Relations responsible for China admissions, suggested that the unified test should be structured in a way that rewards rote memorization for it to be effective.

He also suggested to associate the curriculum with tests that emphasize conversational skills so that the system will increase the use of native English language speakers and retrain Chinese English language teachers to improve both their skills and teaching methodology.