Overseas students make fewer mistakes than native speakers(23880)-英语教育-(35)-21英语网

本文作者： 21ST

　　据《印度时报》报道，英国近日发布的一项调查表明，在英国大学留学的海外学生在英语拼写和语法方面表现出色，甚至优于英国本地学生。专家指出，英国学生忽视基本的语言技能训练将不利于他们参与全球竞争。

　　FOREIGN students are prized in British universities not only for the high fees they pay but also for their higher standards and commitment to studies than their local counterparts, reports The Times of India.

　　Academics say international students are vital to a vibrant academic community. They bring their own cultures to the student experience and help maintain or even raise academic standards in British universities.

　　Scientist Bernard Lamb, a researcher in genetics at the Imperial College, UK, reveals that overseas students are significantly better at English language than their British counterparts.

　　"I have taught biology and genetics at Imperial College in London for nearly 40 years and during that time I have logged the depressing decline in the standards of British students who enroll on the degree course that I teach, even though their A-level grades continue to improve." says Lamb, Chairman of the London branch of the Queen's English Society in the UK.

　　Lamb found that the most fundamental problem is an inability to write English accurately: to use words and punctuation correctly so that sentences state the ideas the students are trying to express. He compiled a list of common spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He recorded the proportion of students making each mistake to assess differences in ability between British and overseas students.

　　Lamb's survey shows that over half of the British students sampled were unable to spell "separate" and more than a quarter struggled to differentiate between "complementary" and "complimentary". None of the overseas students made these mistakes. Whilst many words were universally misspelled, the overwhelming majority of errors were made by British students.

　　"The most shaming fact revealed by my surveys of my undergraduates' performance is that foreign students - whose first language isn't English - make fewer mistakes than native-speakers," Lamb wrote in The Daily Telegraph in a piece titled "This is the way we lose our jobs". He highlighted that "students at Imperial are not uniquely poor," explaining that poor literary skills have become commonplace amongst university students who have "not been made to realize that inaccuracies matter".

　　A senior academic from Cardiff University, UK, said the result is that British students are losing out in the global market.

　　"International students are mostly bright and make the most of their courses. For those overseas students - such as from China - who are not too comfortable with English, there are extensive language support services available. They are basically very bright students and a little help in the English language goes a long way for them", she said.