Changes to the CET exam

Been here teaching corporate gigs for over two years, and this is the first I've even heard of the CET.

What exactly is it?

It's a test all your corporate gig employees took when they were in college to get the diploma (pre-2005) or an extra English proficiency certificate (2005+) that helped got them the jobs they have now. But once they got those jobs, they or the company that hired them, realized they couldn't speak a lick of English, nor communicate. So they hired your employer to give them additional English communicative training. Simple as that.

Me too, in over 5 years, I've never even been asked to help out. I've had students ask a few questions but it is so structured and the Chinese teachers have ingrained certain habits, students won't even ask a FT about it. I've had loads of students who took it, and less than a handfull bothered to ask me

Meh

My experience too. When the students were preparing for CET 4 they'd respectfully ask to be able to study for it, rather than participate in the lesson I'd lovingly prepared. When asked which multiple choice answer was correct, I'd point out that a] and d] were both perfectly acceptable, which totally shot my credibility. Any Chinese student knows there can be only one correct answer!
For all its shortcomings, I'd rather teach a class who'd passed the test than one still working towards it. And a query: does CET 6 still exist? Students who'd passed this, or were even studying for it, were generally communicatively competent and actually interested in the English language.

I have updated the OP to add further information.  

For all its shortcomings, I'd rather teach a class who'd passed the test than one still working towards it. And a query: does CET 6 still exist? Students who'd passed this, or were even studying for it, were generally communicatively competent and actually interested in the English language.

Yes, the CET 5 & 6 still exist.  

Meh

See, this is my problem.

Non-major students are interested in passing the CET: study after study on student atitudes has shown this.  The CET is the only reason that general language instruction exists at tertiary level (it didn't exist prior to the test's introduction in 1986).  Language lessons which don't contribute to this end are less relevent to many students because they don't meet their needs, which cuases this to happen:

My experience too. When the students were preparing for CET 4 they'd respectfully ask to be able to study for it, rather than participate in the lesson I'd lovingly prepared

Everyone resents being seen as a foreign clown who is there to provide "fun" and "active" lessons which can be put aside when the serious business of learning needs to take place (and we can debate the nature of learning in another thread, read that word contextually here).  One way to push against this perception is by demonstrating a link between your lessons and the material in the CET.  Even something as basic as helping students to realise that framing correct utterances contributes to their capacity to produce grammatical sentences is a start!

There's a whole world of skills you can build up which are good for the goose and the gander: skimming and scanning are important for general acadmeic study and for the CET4&6; listening skills are crucial to success in the reformed CET and as a native speaker you have the potential to extend and develop your students' skills in this area with comparativley little effort; the list goes on.  You don't need to turn your teaching upside down to accommodate this idea, but of course you should be aware of how what you are doing does or does not fit into a crucial part of your teaching context.

Maybe it's just the way I approach teaching in China: you can tackle EFL issues from a wide range of angles, some people like to study theory, some people like to reflect on classroom practice and some set sail for the abyss of educational ethnography.  Yarr!

My school doesn't care about CET, but puts a lot of focus on TEM. In fact, for about the 4-6 weeks leading up to the test ALL of their classes stop teaching and just focus on TEM stuff. So I've had students say they really appreciate my class because they get to do something different for a change.

The hardest week for me to be a teacher is the week before TEM-4 with my sophmores. They are so jacked up for the test, so focused and stressed, they can't concentrate at all. I tried one time to show a movie and they were just so buzzed they couldn't even sit still for the goonies! So now I try to do something active to get their mind off the test. But I hate teaching sophomores because of that stupid test!

My school doesn't care about CET, but puts a lot of focus on TEM.

The CET is for non majors and the TEM is for English majors.  If, like me, you teach English majors only then you normally don't need to worry about the CET, just the TEM.  I think you can sit the TEM as an external candidate, but I am not totally sure - if your students are doing this en mass then I would love to hear about it.    

I can do another thread on the TEM at some point but I know less about it because it afflicts a smaller cohort and there is less research on it.  I have ten years of past papers for 4 & 8 but I don't know much about the history of the test.

In fact, for about the 4-6 weeks leading up to the test ALL of their classes stop teaching and just focus on TEM stuff.

The grades they receive in their TEM are more important than their degree performance - that is true for both the students and the faculty.  It's a dumb way to run things on a number of fronts but I don't envy the task of maintaining some semblance of QA over a national system which involves over 2000 instituions: nationalised external exams in one form or another are about the only way.

Have you ever known any students who took the spoken component of the exam?

I have updated the OP to add further information.  


My experience too. When the students were preparing for CET 4 they'd respectfully ask to be able to study for it, rather than participate in the lesson I'd lovingly prepared

Everyone resents being seen as a foreign clown who is there to provide "fun" and "active" lessons which can be put aside when the serious business of learning needs to take place (and we can debate the nature of learning in another thread, read that word contextually here).  One way to push against this perception is by demonstrating a link between your lessons and the material in the CET.  Even something as basic as helping students to realise that framing correct utterances contributes to their capacity to produce grammatical sentences is a start!



Actually, "foreign clown" was never my issue. My students knew I was a tertiary qualified English teacher with 30 years experience. Just that I didn'r the particular CET 4 answers they were after!

Actually, "foreign clown" was never my issue. My students knew I was a tertiary qualified English teacher with 30 years experience. Just that I didn't have the particular CET 4 answers they were after!

And that's part of the problem - students' judgement is, in general, going to be led by their needs.  I might have over cooked it a bit by using the C-word but for those lessons and for Borkya's four weeks...

In fact, for about the 4-6 weeks leading up to the test ALL of their classes stop teaching and just focus on TEM stuff.

...NETs are excluded from the serious business of "real" teaching, learning and assessment.  I would argue that this exclusion is needless.  With 30 years of experience under your belt I am willing to bet that if the powers that be in your college had handed you some past papers and said "find ways to highlight these aspects of the test in your lessons" you would have been all over it and would have done a damn sight better job than a good chunk of the CET teaching staff.  

The real joke is that NETs are often excluded from CET and TEM preparation considerations because CLT methodology is deemed to be a poor contributor to test performance.  Which is more than a little ironic because the MoE has repeatedly mandated the use of CLT methodology in the CET classroom!

Chinese education culture is so terribly conservative sometimes - if it isn't "cram" then it isn't "exam".  

We don't need to internalize that bit of nonsense but - and this is where I think I might differ from alot of people - I don't believe that holding oneself apart from a flawed system is productive either.

And a query: does CET 6 still exist? Students who'd passed this, or were even studying for it, were generally communicatively competent and actually interested in the English language.

I help out with the recruitment at my company and we won't hire anyone that hasn't passed CET 6 (or that doesn't have a penis, but I suppose that's a topic for a different thread). All the grad student hires need to pass the company mock TOEFL too with a 550 or higher to be formally hired, although we've been really pushing for a IELTS-like exam that actually tests their speaking/real ability to communicate with people.

The CET is for non majors and the TEM is for English majors.  If, like me, you teach English majors only then you normally don't need to worry about the CET, just the TEM.  I think you can sit the TEM as an external candidate, but I am not totally sure - if your students are doing this en mass then I would love to hear about it.    

Have you ever known any students who took the spoken component of the exam?

I should have been clearer, I teach english majors, and of course my students all take CET too, but since it is similar to TEM the english majors don't focus specifically on it. The general consensus is if they can pass TEM-4 they can pass CET-6. Some of my seniors and graduates tell me that actually the TEM is not all that important in the "real" world. That CET is the test that employers look for because they know what it is (since TEM is just for english majors companies are less familiar with it unless they hire a lot of english majors.)

And almost all my students do the oral part, well about 75%. They say it's a joke and really easy. They don't do much prep for it except morning reading and practicing in the dorm. The admin doesn't even tell the foreign teachers about it and we are the ones teaching oral class, so they don't put any importance on it.

Chinese teachers are very good at teaching to the test. They are not so good at teaching a subject and finding ways to make that subject applicable to the exam, and when other teachers do that, the students worry because they are not getting explicit "test prep" instruction. You can tell Chinese students "this will be useful for your exam!" till you're blue in the face but if they're not doing practice questions and learning test tricks, they're not happy.

There's more going on there, in my opinion, than just a lack of respect for foreign teachers. As gonzo hits upon, when students come to foreign teachers with confusion about a CET or a TEM question, we're likely to pick out 2 or 3 or even no correct answers. These Chinese designed English exams test a very rigid and specific set of skills/knowledge and at times foreign teachers can really muddle things for them if we're not intricately knowledgeable about the way the exam is designed. It isn't helpful to students who have to pass the exam when a foreign teacher prounounces the whole thing rubbish.

FTs do teach many foreign-designed exams which are every bit as important (to the students who take them) as the CET or the TEM 4/8. I teach SAT prep every semester and foreigners routinely teach IELTS and TOEFL, not to mention other exams like AP and A-levels. These exams are rarely left wholly to Chinese teachers (although CTs will teach "test tricks" for these exams) and that's because the reasoning of those exams is pretty easy for foreigners to grasp but not always intuitive to Chinese teachers. Chinese TOEFL teachers, for instance, tend to try and turn the "free answer" writing portions into a fill in the blanks forumla, which is actually a really poor way to teach those sections because inevitably you'll come across a question that doesn't fit neatly into the little boxes that the CTs are teaching the kids to fill.

That's all to say, I really don't think there's a huge need for foreigners to be grabbing the CET by the horns and demanding a piece of the test-prep action. I understand the desire to stay relevant, but until the system changes or Chinese teaching methodology because more focused on skills and less focused on exam cramming, the Chinese exam system is not going to be where foreign teachers shine.

And of course, you can tell your students what you're teaching will be useful for the TEM 4 or whathaveyou, but unless you're doing actual test drilling? Chances are they won't believe you.

It isn't helpful to students who have to pass the exam when a foreign teacher prounounces the whole thing rubbish.

I agree, as part of the rejection of the CET, alot of NETs label the whole system as rubbish and take every opportunity to swing in the opposite direction.  I don't think that's a good idea at all.

These Chinese designed English exams test a very rigid and specific set of skills/knowledge and at times foreign teachers can really muddle things for them if we're not intricately knowledgeable about the way the exam is designed.

These exams are rarely left wholly to Chinese teachers (although CTs will teach "test tricks" for these exams) and that's because the reasoning of those exams is pretty easy for foreigners to grasp but not always intuitive to Chinese teachers. Chinese TOEFL teachers, for instance, tend to try and turn the "free answer" writing portions into a fill in the blanks forumla, which is actually a really poor way to teach those sections because inevitably you'll come across a question that doesn't fit neatly into the little boxes that the CTs are teaching the kids to fill.

Although I note your criticisms of rote test prep strategies, you do seem to admit CTs a bit more room to get involved with tests like IELTS or TOEFL than you give NETs for CET.

Why?

(I am not setting you up for anything here, I see this "it's not for us" attitude everywhere and I don't understand the basis for it all.  The CET is just an exam, a simple, traditional, language exam.  It's not witchcraft.  There seems to be this huge divide with no foundation in good sense - I just don't understand why people don't challenge this, honestly.  To me it seems like rationalizing and accepting we should have to sit at the back of the bus or something.)

And almost all my students do the oral part, well about 75%.

Where do they take it and what kind of institution do you work at?

I am not just being idly curious, I want to push this issue where I work and I need comparisons.  Ta.

Great topic and glad it got split off from Stil's original (and also great topic on Tips).

I'm on all fours with bobrage on the idea that, as much as we dislike these tests, we should take them into account in our teaching. I have and I do. I'm really busy at the moment and can't write more, but I want to make a few random notes on various points which, when time permits, I can expand on late when time permits. In no particular order:

1. My small contribution to my students prep for the tests: I realize it's coming up. I feel I CAN make a contribution to their performance on the essay portion, so in the 4th week before the test, I build in a lesson on writing under time pressure and present them with a strategy for same-which we then practice in class. Mostly students have told me that this lesson has unexpectedly (not expecting the FT to teach anything about the CET/TEM), but definitely helped them. I have historical data to prove it has. (Higher pass rates amongst those who have had it.)

2. A couple of years ago on here (the Saloon), I made the mistaken statement that their was no spoken component to the TEM tests. I was only aware their was such on the CET 6. Borkya set me straight. Further research on the issue disclosed that, indeed, there was, yet it was ptional. Borkya's school knew of this and encouraged students to do it as well. When I confronted my school, they knew nothing about it. It's optional. Moreover, my own students were pissed because the school hadn't told them about this option, because they hadn't known about it, and they were really good in spoken English and would have relished the opportunity to gain, yet, another certificate.) I was pissed, because it meant I could have promoted the benefit of my Spoken English classes to a test-minded student cohort. Yes Virginia, there is a spoken English optional test for the TEM 4 and TEM 8.

3. Independent of the chance for them to take a Spoken English Certificate test, The first class of second semester (for the TEM taking students), I spend quite a bit of time telling them HOW taking my oral English class can help them on the paper-test version of the TEM. In very brief terms, I point out that while they have been studying the four language learning skills (Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking) + 1 (Grammar), all are taught separately in preparation for the upcoming test (Speaking excluded). I have planned my 8 week curriculum in the lead-up to the exam so that this will be the first and only course they will have where they can INTEGRATE the various skills they have been taught separately (R, W, L, G) and use them in my "speaking class" so as to CONSOLIDATE the range of their English skills. Remember, if you raise the level of the water, all boats will float. By consolidating the various skills, your english level will rise, and you have a better chance your test score will likewise rise.

4. I do an intensive lesson on "Root Words" during this period. Learning Root Words kills a few birds with one stone: 1. Learn one root word and your vocabulary will expand exponentially. E.g. "chrono" means time and suddenly they have added 6 new words to their vocal. Chronometer, Chronicle, Chronology, Chronological, Chronic illness, etc. 2. The root word link they learn will make it easier to remember vocabulary (which is tested on CET and TEM). 3. Knowing root words can improve their reading comprehension and reading speed (both tested) by allowing students to guess from context AND root word knowledge the meaning of new words encountered.

5. I don't do specific test prep; the Chinese teachers are best at that. But I do realize some of the stuff they will face in the tests and try to blend in lessons and strategies for doing well on specific aspects-Writing timed essays, Vocab expansion and reading comprehension, etc. (as mentioned above).

6. I have often taught the English-major subject "Survey of English Speaking Countries" and also Lit. The TEM 8 DOES have questions from these topics, yet, these classes are often taught first or second year. I have my English major students prepare a portfolio for work they have done in my class. Among the items I tell them to put in the portfolio are the notes from this class, and I tell them (the English majors) to save these notes and review them in Year 4, as they prepare for the TEM 8. The TEM 8 DOES have questions on such subjects (as bobrage has already pointed out.

So, yeah, I agree with bob.

I don't disagree with any of that actually. I think we can and should make our classes as relevant as possible to the students' academic and real-life goals.

However, it has been my experience that Chinese students want the specific test prep, and for tests like the TEM 4 and the CET, it seems that Chinese teachers should be the ones mainly responsible for prepping them.

Every year I tell my students that way back in the day I took the SAT without taking any specific prepping courses. Nor did most of my peers. I did quite well on that exam too. They are shocked! Shocked I tell you! The idea of going into a major exam like that without ever cracking a Barron's guide was totally nuts to them.

Test prep though is a huge industry in China and there's a lot invested in the idea that students need specific, directed, preparation for these exams. As I mentioned before, you can make your classes relevant to the exam, but unless you are actually teaching TO the exam, the students are going to want test prep classes alongside yours, and when it comes down to it, they'll, as gonzo says, they'll spurn your "lovingly prepared lessons" in favor of pouring over old test papers.

Part of this is absolutely intentional. There's been a bit of a crackdown on this, but teachers giving essential test-preparation outside of class and for extra fees is prevalent. Teachers talk to parents and students and convince them that without these specific prep classes, their students are doomed to failure. And in fact, there have been cases, particularly involving the Gaokao, where teachers are actually holding back essential bits of information and only sharing it with their students who sign up for extra test prep classes.

The tests need specific preparation and not just relevant knowledge is well ingrained in the system. Again, I don't see anything wrong, at all, with making your classes as relevant as possible and telling the students that what they're learning will help them on whatever English exam they're taking, but I don't think there's any chance that foreign teachers will replace Chinese teachers as the preferred deliverers of the exam prep courses that they find essential.

Well we can both agree on how pervasive the insidious influence of the testing industry is China.  

I suppose that if one wants to encourage NET involvement in the CET or TEM then a few things do have to be aligned: a qualified teacher; good contextual knowledge of exam practice in China; students who are able to engage productively with a subject in English.  To establish reliable practice in support of things as verifiable as the CET or TEM batteries these conditions would also need to be the year on year norm, rather than the exception.  Still, I hold that it can be done, even at a xueyuan.  The most difficult part is hiring qualified teachers (that's always the most difficult part).  

old34, I am a fan of your system - you hit the nail on the head in terms of what I think is good practice in this area.  

[edit]

Had a meeting with the Assistant Dean this morning and we are now applying for permission to set the spoken elements of the TEM4 for our students at the end of this year.

 

I am laowai, hear me roar.