HSK 3.0 ... new, new HSK?

[Guest realmayo]

According to this page the HSK exam will be changed to offer nine levels: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/48yDq48T_WzCjfD9uT4laA

 

I don't know if this is (a) fake news (I don't see a source for the information) or (b) new news (maybe everyone knew this already)

 

The link suggests there'll be nine levels, not six. Reading through - not very well - I'm not sure the text explicitly says this will replace the previous HSK regime. I certainly don't see any date for it doing so. Old timers will remember that the 'original' HSK co-existed for a while with the "new" HSK that is the current standard one now.

 

Or is it that the Confucius Institute organisation has put together a 《汉语水平等级标准》 and it expects that HSK people (assuming they are different or even rival organisations) will at some point in the future modify the exam to match those standards?

 

Anyway, a good day for publishers of textbooks!

[roddy]

New to me, and I can't spot anything official, but it sounds plausible. I daresay it's common knowledge among those who need to know. My reading

 

1) We realise we don't match up with the CEFR levels, and we'd really like to, but without making it obvious we didn't quite get it right first time. So rather than adjusting the difficulty of our current six levels, we're adding in an extra three to get us there. This is excellent news for textbook publishers.

2) 而且对词汇量，特别是高等7-9级的词汇要求有较大提高 - Yes, we cut down on vocab too much. We're fixing that.

3) 未来HSK高等考试主要人群很可能为日韩考生 - this is funny. We're seeing a return of the old "too hard for (Western) foreigners" thinking. How about China ups its teaching game?

4） 体现汉语独特性，确定音节、汉字、词汇、语法的四维语言量化指标体系. I'll be interested to see what this looks like. Sections solely on characters and syllables( phonetics?), and also vocab and grammar. 

 

Overall, this looks quite positive. The 'old old' HSK always needed a massive shake-up, it was unfortunate that it came about with a bureaucratic battle over territory and ended up with the levels effectively being decapitated. If we end up with more advanced language at the top end and better tests of real-world language use - well, it took them a while, but they got there.

[xinoxanu]

4 minutes ago, roddy said:

This is excellent news for textbook publishers

 

???

 

Definitely having to import new textbooks not available yet in the 2nd hand market is is going to be rather expensive for those outside China. Should I start a "fair-price" NGO scheme to ship textbooks abroad? In the mainland, brands such as "Road to Success" only cost between 30-80kuai a piece ?

 

Bur really, I hope they actually reintroduce the old HSK or make do with this new one. I've been meaning to take the HSK5 exam for a while now, but I haven't bite the bullet yet considering the little relevance it has, and how "easy" is to achieve that certification compared to CEFR-like ones. It takes away all the fun!

[ZhangKaiRong]

2 hours ago, xinoxanu said:

 

Bur really, I hope they actually reintroduce the old HSK or make do with this new one. I've been meaning to take the HSK5 exam for a while now, but I haven't bite the bullet yet considering the little relevance it has, and how "easy" is to achieve that certification compared to CEFR-like ones. It takes away all the fun!

Language proficiency certificates are just bragging rights anyway, regardless of what framework they are based on.

 

It might be that I'm too pessimistic about the outcome, but I don't see how it would be better than either the old or "new" HSK, I'm afraid it would still be a "Chinese-style" exam (i.e. something that you could pass with textbook cramming rather than being able to use the language).

[roddy]

Bragging rights about... having proven an ability to use the language? 

 

Sure, you can cram and forget stuff, and they're only ever going to be able to do a limited amount of testing in the few hours available. But a well-designed test is still a very useful tool, and I do think the HSK seems to be on the right track. 

[ZhangKaiRong]

Bragging rights on your CV, yes. English is not my native language, so learning languages was a must since my childhood. I have a C1 cert in English (Cambridge), C1 cert in Spanish (DELE), B2 cert in German (Goethe), HSK 5 and JLPT N4. It definitely doesn't mean that I'm polyglot, because I'm very far from it. The above statement only means that at a certain point in time in the past I could pass an exam.

 

As a tool, exams can be useful and can structure how you approach a language. The problem is that for most language learners, a stupid cert is seen as something as an end goal, rather than a check-in. 

[Balthazar]

Well, yes and no. Is there a viable alternative to language proficiency tests that could be use for (e.g.) admission to universities?

 

The "objective" me welcomes this change (if it is actually happening).

 

The "intentionally using my HSK results as a bragging point on my CV" me does not welcome the additional levels.

[大块头]

I tweeted their (brand new) Twitter account. Let's see if they confirm this change...

[大块头]

Well they didn't respond to me directly, but their account tweeted this a few hours later.

 

Quote

HSK is about to be reformed. #HSK In 2020, the Chinese Proficiency Standards will usher in a new change: a hybrid paradigm of “Three Stages and Nine Levels” characterized by integration and all-in-one.
For more information, please check:
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3Q7ufBrzsQAJNw2d6L5iCg

 

[mungouk]

That "read more" link at the end goes to a Baidu page that needs a password... is the document password-protected or is it just a login thing?

 

Edit: Ah OK I missed the password hidden in that nonsense about recharging batteries... it's "83s6"

[mackie1402]

83s6 

5 minutes ago, mungouk said:

That "read more" link at the end goes to a Baidu page that needs a password... is the document password-protected or is it just a login thing?

 

83s6

[大块头]

The WeChat article itself isn't very informative... I've attached the document that it links to.

汉语国际教育汉语水平等级标准全球化之路_刘英林.pdf

[mungouk]

I guess this is something like a position paper for "HSK 3.0"... does it say anything about timescale for implementation apart from "2020"?

 

 

[imron]

I don't want to say I'm a prophet or anything, but looking at the vocab levels, it turns out that HSK 6 does in fact get you halfway!

 

 

 

[roddy]

Can anyone tell me how they're going to test 音节? A standalone pronunciation test? On single syllables? 1110 is roughly the number of plausible Chinese syllables. A recognition test? Am I getting confused?

[mungouk]

It's reassuring to see that the increase of vocab across levels will be linear (plus 300 each time), and not exponential as it is currently. 

 

Edit: oh hang on, that's only 汉子 isn't it...  Vocab 词汇 will go up by around 1000 words per level from 三级 onwards.  ?

[roddy]

That progression in 汉字 makes me wonder if they've decided on how many characters we 'should' know, picked the nice round number of 3,000 and divvied them up across the levels, rather than deciding on what vocab we should know and deriving any character tests from that. Is the tail wagging the dog a bit?

 

I do want to be positive about this, and so am really hoping they're not trying to be too clever, and coming up with extra things to test for the sake of it. But if it turns out that half of the top 1,000 characters don't actually feature in any of the vocab items, or only feature in vocab items which are clearly only there to get the character in...

[mungouk]

I emailed my local Confucius Institute (Manchester, UK) to ask if they knew anything about the changes, and it seems they're aware.

 

They said:

 

    Don't worry, it's not finalised yet,  new syllabus and textbooks haven't been published, won't affect exam in the near future.

 

 

[xinoxanu]

This just raises even more questions: What will happen with previous HSK 1-6 certificates that are still valid for 2 years? Will they be converted? Will universities that require an HSK5 level ask you to resit the new HSK 3.0 of sorts? Will they keep the same entry level?

 

And, since we are talking about our beloved China, will this be unified in the whole country or will we have the traditional shitshow-bureaucracy-disparity between regions/provinces/cities?

[roddy]

I'd fully expect current HSK results to be valid for the two years, and while I guess there might be some phased roll-out or trials where it becomes available in certain cities first, that won't last long.