Comparative Analysis of Independent Propositional Test and Chinese Proficiency Test in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Doing research on the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language is an important part of professional evaluation and personal assessment in order to obtain feedback and promote Chinese language and culture. As one of the efforts, this paper therefore reports on the use of Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) developed by Chinese educators in a technical-based Malaysian university by comparing it to the Independent Propositional Tests developed by local language educators. The HSK is commonly used in Hebei Province, China in an international context, and examining its use outside China is essential. Participants were students who enrolled in Mandarin course for beginners, who were also non-Chinese speakers. The objective of the study was to analyze the final test of HSK aiming at examining the questions and its content by examining its effects on students’ foreign language learning. After comparing the independent propositional tests with the actual Chinese Proficiency Certificate (HSK) Level 1, it can be drawn that the difficulty level of the final test is greater than the HSK Level 1. Independent propositional final test demands a higher ability of grasping a larger vocabulary and understanding concepts of words that could be reflected on the writing skills. Development of the tests should therefore focus more on making it scientific, standardized and institutionalized.