Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học ngành toán học được đăng trên tạp chí toán học quốc tế đề tài: A case study of the College English Test and ethnic minority university students in China: negotiating the final hurdle | Adamson and Xia Multilingual Education 2011 1 1 http 1 1 1 o Multilingual Education a SpringerOpen Journal RESEARCH Open Access A case study of the College English Test and ethnic minority university students in China negotiating the final hurdle Bob Adamson1 and Beibei Xia2 Correspondence badamson@ied. department of International Education and Lifelong Learning Hong Kong Institute of Education 10 Lo Ping Road Tai Po New Territories Hong Kong SAR Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Springer Abstract The College English Test CET is one of the entry and exit requirements for undergraduate study for any major at universities in China. Its high status reflects the prominent role ascribed to the English language in the nation s economic development. For many students from China s 55 ethnic minority groups the CET represents a formidable hurdle they typically received piecemeal exposure to English as their primary and secondary schooling was conducted in relatively underresourced areas. The paper reports the case of a university that lowered the CET entry requirements for these disadvantaged students. However similar adjustments were not made to the exit requirements resulting in the failure of hundreds of ethnic minority students to graduate. A subsequent court decision ruled that the university had not breached any laws. The paper discusses the questions of social justice that are posed by the university s actions in particular and by the importance attached to English in higher education in general and concludes that there is a fine line between affirmative action and discrimination and the university s language policy failed to take full account of the reality facing many ethnic minority students. Keywords English as a foreign language testing ethnic minority social justice China Background Language policies in education involve state authorities making important decisions that have implications
