Thanks for this Anne. I have expressed an opinion on this before. Much as I
understand the reasons offered by universities for this, given the particular
nature of Chinese, I still find it unacceptable and very shortsighted. The
Confucius Institutes are wanting to promote Chinese in schools, and the
language is developing rapidly, so it is an anomoly not to plan for this. Why
am I putting so much effort into trying to dvelop PGCE places if their pupils
will be rejected from HE courses? There is indeed an important ethical issue
here.

Universities need to look at ways in which differentiation is possible, using
different levels of attainment to contribute to a community of practice. This
is what I had to do when teaching languages in schools where there would often
be a native speaker of the language present as a pupil. The development of
greater individualisation is clearly crucial. Perhaps it is a resource issue,
in which case we need to support Chinese departments in gaining access to
greater resource.

I think a meeting with Bill Rammell would be important, at least to draw his
attention to the situation. Let me know if I can be of any help.

All the best

Terry


Quoting Anne Martin <[log in to unmask]>:

> Some more worrying news about University attitudes to students with GCSE and
> A level Chinese
> 
> I am teaching a non native mature student who is taking GCSE Chinese this
> year. He already has some A levels and has applied to SOAS and has been given
> an unconditional offer to study Chinese. 
> 
> At the open day last week an admissions tutor at SOAS was asked by someone
> how they viewed students with A level Chinese. The admissions tutor replied
> that a student with A level Chinese would probably not be offered a place to
> study Chinese at SOAS as their course starts from the beginning and they have
> no course for those with A level already. My student who is taking GCSE was
> told to ease off on his studies. 
> 
> I am appauled by this attitude. 
> 
> We in secondary schools are working hard to get our students through GCSE and
> A level with good grades to be told this by an admissions tutor at a leading
> University. 
> 
> I would like to take this up with the Minister for Higher Education Bill
> Rammell who spoke at the recent HSBC conference.
> What do others think about this ?
> 
> Regards
> Anne Martin
> 
>  


Dr Terry LAMB
Director, Initial Teacher Education
University of Sheffield

President, FIPLV (Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues
Vivantes)
Convenor, AILA Research Network on Learner Autonomy in Language Learning

School of Education
The Education Building
388 Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2JA

Tel: (+)44 (0)114 222 8118
Fax: (+)44 (0)114 279 8631
http://www.shef.ac.uk/education/staff/academic/lambt.html
FIPLV website: http://www.fiplv.org/
AILA SC website: http://lc.ust.hk/~ailasc/