考研英语复习重点资料:《经济学人》阅读及译文(24)
English as language of global education
In the shifting universe of global academia, English is becoming as commonplace as creeping ivy and mortarboards. In the last five years, the world's top business schools and universities have been pushing to make English the teaching tongue in a calculated strategy to raise revenues by attracting more international students and as a way to respond to globalization.
Business universities are driving the trend, partly because changes in international accreditation standards in the late 1990s required them to include English-language components. But English is also spreading to the undergraduate level, with some South Korean universities offering up to 30 percent of their courses in the language. The former president of Korea University in Seoul sought to raise that share to 60 percent, but ultimately was notre-elected to his post in December.
Over the last three years, the number of master's programs offered in English at universities with another host language has more than doubled, to 3,300 programs at 1,700 universities, according to David A. Wilson, chief executive of the Graduate Management Admission Council, an international organization of leading business schools that is based in McLean, Va.
We are shifting to English. Why? said Laurent Bibard, the dean of M.B.A. programs at Essec, a top French business school in a suburb of Paris that is a fertile breeding ground for chief executives.
It's the language for international teaching, he said. English allows students to be able to come from anyplace in the world and for our students-the French ones-to go everywhere.
This year the university is celebrating its 100th anniversary in its adopted tongue. Its new publicity film debuted in English and French. Along one of the main roads leading into Paris loomed a giant blue billboard boasting of the anniversary in French and, in smaller letters, in English.
With the jump in foreign students, Essec now offers 25 percent of its 200 courses in English. Its ambition is to accelerate the English offerings to 50 percent in the next three years.
But getting students to feel comfortable speaking English in the classroom is easier said than done. When younger French students at Essec start a required course in organizational analysis, the atmosphere is marked by long, uncomfortable silences, said Alan Jenkins, a management professor and academic director of the executive M.B.A. program.
At the beginning, teaching courses in English may have less efficiency or effectiveness in terms of knowledge transfer than those courses taught in Korean, said Anna Suh, program manager for the university's office of global affairs, who said that students eventually see the benefits. Our aim for this kind of program is to prepare and equip our students to be global leaders in this new era of internationalization.
参考译文:
英语--全球教育语言
在不断变化的全球学术界,英语正变得像不断爬升的常春藤和不断升级的学位帽一样普通。在过去的五年中,世界一流的商学院和大学始终千方百计致力于使英语成为教学语言,从而通过吸引更多的各国学生来增加收入和应对全球化。
商业性大学正追赶这种潮流,部分上是因为20世纪90年代后期全球鉴定标准的变化使得他们必须包含英语语言元素。但是英语也正扩展到本科层次的教育,南韩大学在语言课程中包含30%的英语。首尔韩国大学前校长曾想将这一比例扩大到60%,但是在十二月份的选举中,他最终没能连任校长一职。
大卫•A•威尔森,是毕业生管理录取委员会的行政长官,这是一个顶尖商学院的国际组织,位于McLean, Va。据他问题,在过去的三年中,大学中同时用英语和另一种本国语言授课的硕士生课程翻了一番,在1700所大学中达到了3300门课程。
Laurent Bibard是Essec大学M.B.A.课程的主任。Essec大学是位于巴黎郊区的一所顶尖法国商学院,盛产首席执行官。他问道:为什么我们要使用英语教学呢?
英语是国际教学授课语言,他说,英语使得学生们来自世界每一个地方,也使得我们的法国学生走向世界的每个角落。
这所大学正准备用英语纪念她的100岁生日。她的宣传影片首次同时用英语和法语播放。在通往巴黎的其中一条主干道上矗立着一幅巨大的蓝色广告牌,上面用法语同时用小字体的英语宣传着她的100岁生日。
随着外国学生的增加,Essec大学200门课程中有25%用英语授课。她还将努力使这一比例在接下来的三年中增加到50%。
但是要使学生在课堂上舒舒服服地说英语却是说起来容易做起来难。阿兰•金克斯是一位管理学教授,同时还是主管M.B.A项目的学术带头人。他说,当年轻的法国学生们开始学习一门关于组织分析的必修课时,课堂经历了一段长时间的尴尬的沉默。
安娜•苏是大学国际事务办公室的项目经理。她说:刚开始的时候,用英语授课可能比用韩语授课在知识的传授方面效率低一些,但学生们最终会看到其中的好处。我们这种项目的目标是使我们的学生在全新的全球化时代为成为全球领导者作准备。