Piece on the HSK

[roddy]

Came across this on the 北大中文论坛. There's a kind of review of the history of the HSK, then some things they are planning / hoping to do or change. It's apparently from the HSK Center at BLCU, although I couldn't find it on their site (which is no great shock).

The interesting stuff is in part 4. Here's a rundown.

1) They're currently developing a MHK - 少数民族汉语水平考试 - perhaps interesting, but not much use for anyone on here.

2) They're researching computer assisted testing.

3) Fixing systematic problems in the HSK System - the 初中 test claims to test two levels, but is only one exam, and it also overlaps with both the 基础 and 高 exams. Three possible solutions.

a) Make the 初中 exam 中, and maybe rename 基础 as 初

B) Split off the 中 part of 初中 and merge 基础 and 初

c) As above without the merging - and have a four level system.

But whichever one they do it shouldn't just be renaming, they need to consider fundamental issues such as

a) range of the 初中 level is too wide.

B) Should the 基础 and 初 levels overlap or not?

c) issues with the 高 - overlap with 中, why can students who fail to get a B at 中 still manage to get a B at 高, and should it cover two years of study?

4) They're developing more HSK 'series' exams - Secretarial, Business, Travel, Kids - we had a post on these some time ago

5) They need more practical content, and less pure language testing

6) They're reworking the 大纲s, and also producing a 语音等级大纲

7) They're developing written and spoke corpuses (corpi? cactuses?) for use in CSL research.

That was rough, anyone who is actually interested should probably read the Chinese. Some thoughts.

1) If this actually happens it'll be very good. I think the HSK is a decent exam, but I've also made a lot of the above points myself - there is overlap, and the 初中 does cover too much ground.

2) if 5) means they will introduce meaningful speaking and writing sections to the lower levels, that would be fantastic

3) the 语音等级大纲 sounds interesting - will make a nice addition to the vocab and grammar ones already available.

Roddy