Universities tackle English skills

MANY university faculties are moving to introduce English enhancement courses for undergraduates after finding that standards of English among students are not good enough to help them cope with their courses. ''Speech is the most common problem for students because the students are embarrassed when they are speaking English in a group,'' said Dr Desmond Allison, senior lecturer of the English Centre at the University of Hong Kong. ''Writing becomes a problem when they get feedback on their work and realise that although they were A or B students before, they do not necessarily get A's or B's on their academic essays,'' he said. To tackle these problems, English enhancement courses are offered on a faculty-specific basis and their aims range from the teaching of academic communication to training in professional and technical communication. ''The course builds upon existing knowledge; it is not designed to remedy problems carried over from school, but rather to enhance students' academic communication and study skills,'' Dr Allison said. Professor Vivian Chan, co-ordinator of the English enhancement programme in the Faculty of Medicine, said the English standard of students in her faculty was good. It is to be improved further through an enhancement course to be offered in September through the English Centre. ''We hope such courses will enable students to use English more effectively in their academic studies. The courses emphasise both students' oral and written work, such as writing professional medical reports.'' The English Centre was established as an integral part of the first-degree curricula at Hong Kong University. This year the centre will run courses for more than 2,000 students, and by 1995 such courses will be included in all first-year undergraduate degree programmes. Similar English enhancement courses are offered at the Hong Kong Chinese University. The English Language Teaching Unit at the Chinese University offers English improvement strategy courses for undergraduates. The courses focus on those skills required for efficient and effective processing of information, in both written and spoken form, to perform academic tasks, according to Barbara Boozer, acting chairman of the English Language Teaching Unit. ''The biggest problem of the students in using English is they do not have enough opportunities to use the language before they enter university. This is particularly true of spoken English,'' Ms Boozer said. Understandably, students of the Journalism and Communication Department at the Chinese University have been found to be ''reasonably good''. Professor Kenneth Leung Wai-yin, department chairman, said: ''The standard in the department is reasonably good because students are highly selected. In addition to the subjects offered such as news reporting and news editing, the practical experience of working for the faculty publications such as New Shatin and Varsity, allows students more realistic practice in English writing.'' However, he added, in general he found that the standard of English at undergraduate level was going down steadily. ''This is because of inadequate training in primary and secondary school in addition to the teaching method in various schools. Change of reading habits and exposure to more electronic media are also factors,'' Professor Leung said. He said it was important that family members also help cultivate an interest in reading and encourage the ability to write in students. Rose Ng Koo Pui-nay, programme co-ordinator of the Language Enhancement Programme at the Baptist College, felt the declining English standard could also be attributed to the increase in university places, which had resulted in less stringent selection criteria. ''Attitudes of undergraduates towards learning are changing. They concentrate on major subjects rather than English,'' Mrs Ng said. In view of this, the Language Centre designs programmes to meet the needs of individual groups of first-year students whose A-level results in English are E or below. Keith Tong Sai-tao, senior lecturer of the Language Centre at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, agreed that lowered entrance requirements for tertiary institutions were partly to blame. The university is setting up rigorous procedures to evaluate the university's language enhancement courses. and to measure students' progress. Tests indicated a significant improvement.