Do the English Benchmark Requirements for Graduation Meet College Students' English Language Needs in Taiwan?

Following the policy of the Ministry of Education (MOE) to promote globalization in Taiwan's tertiary education, many colleges and universities in Taiwan have set their own English benchmark for graduation for quite a few years. Even though the MOE has recently declared that they never asked colleges and universities to set such a benchmark, only very few colleges and universities have decided to remove their threshold. It is therefore worth noticing whether these graduation requirements meet students' English language needs for their future jobs, since most college students will enter the workforce soon after graduation. The present study investigated the relationship between college students' English language needs and graduation benchmark requirements at two technological universities in northern Taiwan through data collected from interviewing, observations and examination of teaching and testing materials. It was found that the required English exit exam (the General English Proficiency Test, GEPT) and the alternative make-up measures did not seem to have prepared students for the future job market in the following areas: the development of technical vocabulary in students' specialized fields, oral production and 'prefabricated' type of written production. It is suggested that the design and format of the graduation requirements should cover as many language constructs as in students' English language needs for their future jobs. In that sense, more meaningful and practical results could be achieved accordingly.

關鍵字

English benchmark ； English language needs ； graduation ； college students

並列摘要

因應教育部推展高教國際化的政策，多年來許多大專院校都已訂定了學生的英語畢業門檻。即使教育部最近聲明英語畢業門檻政策並非部訂政策，但目前僅有少數幾所大專院校擬取消英語畢業門檻。由於絕大部份的大學畢業生很快就會進入職場，因此有必要對各校所訂的英語畢業門檻內容進行了解，看看是否符合學生未來職場上的英語需求。本研究旨在探討大學生的英語需求與英語畢業門檻之間的關係。資料的收集來自於北部兩所科技大學所做的訪談內容、課室觀察、教材與試題的檢視。結果發現，這兩所學校所訂的英語畢業門檻考試（全民英檢）以及學生門檻未過的補救措施，至少在以下幾個面向並未符合學生的未來職場英語需求: 專業領域英文字彙、英語口語表達，以及制式的英文寫作。建議未來英語畢業門檻的設計和型式，應該將學生未來職場所需的英語語言構件儘量納入。如此一來，英語畢業門檻的訂定也較能達到有意義且實際的成效。

並列關鍵字