TOEFIC

The prime importance of English in international communication is now well documented, as is the poor access to scientific communication in developing countries and the damaging consequences of this. As about 95 per cent of world’s literature comes out in this language, finally Higher education board of Pakistan has realized the importance of English and therefore HEC Pakistan has announced that from 2007, students doing MBA, LLB and other postgraduate courses will not be entitled to obtain their degrees until they pass a test known as Test of English For International Communication (TOEFIC) Reference: Jang weekly Magazine , dated 23/08/ 2007].

In your opinion, how the decision will effect the standard of Pakistani education. Your comments and views with all pros and cons please !

Re: TOEFIC

Aliyish,

nice post. it is nice to see more enteries in this section because it directly links education with economic stability for professionals of the country - whose communication ability is valued as a requirement to be simply more well equipped when it comes to conducting cross national exchange of human capital and its intellectual wealth.

ability for scientific or intellectual inquiry in based on the assumption that the seeker of knowledge is a literate individual, learning cannot take place without use of language.

i don’t know what the curricula is like for the specific subject of international communication , but i presume and hope that it has more to do with the particular terminology of a field of specialty in work rather than simple grammatical proficiency at graduate level.

critical thinking skills, problem solving, scholarly writing - all of it entails a certain degree of eloquence and knowledge of the appropriate use of words and reasoning conveyed in a professional's communication with colleagues and clients.

HEC is on the right track, but the hope is that the over emphasis on handed down curriculum is prevented and local academics can plan on designing curricula which can prepare students for international acumen.
to the extent that this will make current graduate student body able to converse professionally in the world most popular language in work field, academia and businesses, it is a good thing that this regulation has come about.
there is more that needs to be done in the way of being business wise and being internationally culturally aware of the practices at work, protocols of communication, collaboration etc through written and verbal communication, which should be made a primary focus in delivering education on such electives as international communication.

being in education research, i would say though that indigenous languages must be viewed as useful as well to keep the multi linguistic approach in mind which can benefit the clients, in case they do not have the proficiency in English language.

it is a good step that HEC has taken, but it will be interesting to know what has pushed the HEC to do so? was TOEFL not sufficient, if so then in what ways? does this test has a background policy to filter students who are not fully versed in English language? how useful is this post graduate passing out regulation in the context of employment? And so on and so forth. More standardized and norm referenced testing is not a bad thing – it is a compliment to the years of studying and training of students, but its value has to be ascertained in terms of all students who may or may not work in setting where their main language at work, will be English.
needless to state that the knowledge one has can be in any language, and its quality is not affected by what language it is in. but for the sake of interacting with speakers of another more popular and commonly used international language, the requirement of sharing that knowledge in that language in an effective way will come with practice and confidence in one’s ability to meet the standards without feeling awed by it or feeling inept merely because one is not as vocal because of difficulty in spoken language ability which in turn can be a huge hindrance for a professional when he/she has to speak in public with a diverse audience of fellow professionals and young learners in the respective field.
while there is emphasis on learning the most used language’s basic written and comprehension oriented grammatical proficiency to be obtained by second language learners, perhaps as seen in cases of many immigrants - their choice of words, sentence construction, verbal or written intonation and accents are essential to sound understandable in terms of international communication, which can help them in conveying their thoughts more convincingly and in a more sensible manner, literally.

Dushwari

Re: TOEFIC

This is what they do in Iran, its not a big deal. I say the sooner the better...

Re: TOEFIC

English is neccesary but I hate it when South-Asians speak it instead of their mothertongues because it makes them feel modern, wannabes!

Pashto, Siraiki/Punjabi, Arabic, Urdu/Hindi etc. are so much more romantic and poetic than English, the most beautiful sentences which almost have an intoxicating effect in Urdu, Pashto or Arabic sound bland, unstructured and even ridiculous when translated into English because English isn't very developed at all...

Our languages are so much more cultured, regal, poetic and romantic, they strike ones heart chords whilst English just doesn't have that effect.

Re: TOEFIC

First of all , I would like to thank you for being so generous in replying this post with some of your beautiful thoughts . A good conscience is a soft pillow, I say you must be sleeping well these days . Education is indeed directly proportional to economic stability of a county and commonly regarded as transmission of civilization. But this is what you , me and Aristotle think where he stated that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth. Our Moderates (Pakistan Affairs) don’t follow the same line therefore topic is dislocated or I must say relocated to general section for general people like us . As once poet said ‘ Sar Tasleemay Khaam hai , Jo meejaaz yaaar mein ahay ‘ do read Moderator instead of yaar in this scenario :)

Yes, I quite agree with you. In our current scenario, English is, no doubt, a very important language, as it is an international means of communication. The problem is that, back in Pakistan, students and government of Pakistan, they don’t seem to realise its real importance. Generally speaking, English is the universal language on the Internet and almost 95 % of world literature publish in English. My point here is to use it as good servant and don’t let it be a bad master. Our educational system should make sure that students at college level should speak fluent English and while going for higher degrees, enter in western society without a handicap. When I was a student representative years ago , have seen many Pakistani students , postgraduate degrees holders , who couldn’t write a basic application and most of their education was done in English .

I don’t know Dushy; I couldn’t get any thing published, regarding this decision on HCE Pakistan’s official website. My learning of this decision came out of a web poll conducted by Jang newspaper on this issue.

Well , I don’t think TOEFL or IELTS are doing the specific job , we require here . I am talking here from general people ‘s prospect and contemplation , student from grammar schools , obviously don’t seem to have this issue . It is grand , seeing one sitting in these examinations and get a ticket to enter in international universities but heaven sake don’t let our brainy and highbrow students to be the back benchers just because of their sleazy level of English communication .

Re: TOEFIC

A stitch in time saves nine , Minerva ! btw what would be a big deal according to you ? What else they should have done here ?

Re: TOEFIC

Gawd blimey . Mate , you aren’t Au fait with the issue we are talking here . No point going barmy as we aren’t talking to make English , first language for Pakistanis, for me it is better to be bilingual or trilingual but on same hand no point how much more romantic and poetic Pashto, Siraiki/Punjabi, Arabic, Urdu/Hindi are , you wouldn’t find a single university in developed countries like UK and USA offering science degrees in aforementioned languages, would you?

Re: TOEFIC

aliyish,
thanks.
i found a link on this.
http://server.kbri-islamabad.go.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1453&Itemid=46
TOEIC study prep book is SIMPLE.
as time unfolds, the utility of this test req will prove its predictive and content validity.

best,
Dushwari