The Necessity of Graduation Threshold for English

張貼日期：Oct 19, 2021 4:16:47 PM

Cindy Yan

In order to improve our English ability, the Ministry of Education encourages universities to set up graduation threshold for English. All students, including both English and non-English majors should pass the English threshold exam before graduation. However, many college students have doubts and dissatisfactions with this regulation and they consider that it should be abolished. In my opinion, English graduation threshold is not necessary for college students except English majors.

Nowadays, English is indeed the most widely used international language but it’s not the only important foreign language. Students can learn foreign languages according to their own needs, not only English. Take my friend for example. She is a student of culinary department now and she plans to set up a coffee shop in Japan after graduation. However, she also needs to pass an English exit exam, but she would rather spend more time learning Japanese than preparing for the English exam.

Second, the registration fee for the exam is a huge expense for students whose financial condition is not well. Take TOEIC for example. Listening and reading test are $1600, and speaking and writing test are $3,240. The minimum cost is $4840 if we have to take both tests. Students need to pay more than one time if they couldn’t reach the graduation threshold standard. Besides, many non-English majors generally have lower English ability or less interest in English. They may need to spend extra money to go to the language school in order to pass the graduation threshold.

In addition, Student Associations pointed out that there are legal problems about the English graduation threshold. According to the relevant provisions of the University Law, students are only required to complete the courses and credits of the department for graduation. Therefore, I think that only the foreign language departments should set the language graduation threshold; for example, students of English departments have to take the TOEIC test and students of Japanese departments have to take the JLPT test.

With the above reasons, I think that colleges can encourage their students to take the English test by providing scholarships, sponsoring students to study abroad or other ways instead of using it as a graduation threshold. Therefore, I think that abolishing the English graduation threshold can let students have more time to do things which are meaningful to them.