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47VOL. 12 NO. 1 TESOL JOURNAL

Have English Standards BeenLowered? A Discussion onthe English Teachers Networkin Israel E-listAmanda Ward

H ave English standards in Israeli high schoolsdropped? Is this the result of a change in theuniversity entrance exam, whole language teaching,

or both? These questions were discussed by members of theETNI (English Teachers Network in Israel; http://www.etni.org.il) electronic discussion list in reaction to anarticle published in Ha’aretz, an Israeli daily newspaper.The article, entitled “The Bottom Line/Aiming Low”(Strasler, 2002), describes how the Israeli matriculationcertificate used to be well respected for producing studentswith excellent English skills. According to the author,however, things have changed in recent years, and not forthe better. Israeli high schools now promote students whoselevels of English proficiency are ostensibly lower than inpast years to universities.

The Ha’aretz article points out that one reason for thistrend in promotions may be the result of the change in theuniversity entrance exam (the Bagrut). According to thearticle, when the newly appointed Israeli Finance Ministerbegan his term, he wanted to enable all students who hadearned their matriculation certificates to attend university.As a result, the Education Minister became determined toincrease the number of students obtaining these certificatesfrom 40% to 100%. Rather than improve the quality ofteaching in order to accomplish this goal, students werepermitted to take the exam twice and submit the higher oftheir two scores. Consequently, exams were made easier forthe second sitting so that more students could pass andearn their matriculation certificates. When this ploy didnot yield the results desired by the Education Minister, anew method of scoring the exam was implemented tomake it easier for students to pass. The article suggests thatthe aim of the new scoring method was not to overtax thestudents, but to give them more choice, make lower

demands on them, and enhance the popularity of theFinance and Education Ministers and their political parties.

The members of the ETNI electronic discussion list,who are mostly Israeli and non-Israeli language educatorsteaching in Israel, had mixed reactions to this article. Adebate ensued (Mendelkern, 2002) about whether the dropof the general English standard was based on the lowerstandards of the university entrance exam, the implementa-tion of the new whole language curriculum, or both. Onediscussant felt that, because teachers were no longerfacilitators of the language but collaborators on projects(whole language learning), and because explicit grammarteaching was not deemed important, the students’ Englishproficiency levels had dropped. Other members supportedthis view of whole language teaching, suggesting that thismethodology produced students who had low levels ofEnglish language ability, despite their many years ofstudying English.

Other discussants compared the matriculation certifi-cate examination of 10–12 years ago with the one beingadministered today. The previous exam was considered tobe much harder and more valued by English languageeducators than today’s exam; if current students were totake the old exam, members agreed the students would notperform as well. Was the alteration of the exam intended toaccommodate the lower language proficiency levels ofstudents being taught using the whole language approach?

In comparison, several members remarked that thechanges to the system in Israel were positive. Some discus-sants felt that the whole language curriculum was animprovement because the new materials were betterproduced and more exciting and challenging. These factors,they explained, made for a more stimulating environmentin which to teach. One member found that the students’

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English had indeed improved as a result of these changes.Other members commented that whole language teachingencourages students and allows them to be more comfort-able with the foreign language. One contributor, however,admitted that the students in her class are surrounded byEnglish language movies, songs, and television programs,which may account for their increased use of and interestin English. In reaction to the new university exam imposedby the Education Minister, one member seemed to thinkthat adding a composition exam was all that was neededfor assessing fluency and that dropping the Cloze Test ofprevious years was a good idea.

Although there was not unanimous support forstatements made in the Ha’aretz article, participants wereable to air their views about the current Israeli languageeducation policies in universities and to discuss the advan-tages and disadvantages of whole language teaching in highschools. These are discussions to which we can all relate;even so, the debate continues on whether the level ofEnglish can remain high where the exam standard has beeneroded.

The Israeli situation highlights the importance ofconsidering the relationship between the language teachingcurriculum and high-stakes assessments. ESOL teachersworldwide will find this issue a familiar one.

References

Mendelkern, M. (2002, September 16). Livnat’s Bagrut light.Message posted to http://www.topica.com/lists/etni/read/message.html?mid=905279306&sort=d&start=7581

Strasler, N. (2002, September 13). The bottom line/Aiming low.Ha’aretz. Retrieved September 18, 2002, from http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=207897&sw=livnat

Author

Amanda Ward is an English instructor at the American University ofSharjah, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She earned her MATEFL from Colorado State University, in the United States, and hastaught EFL in Turkey and the UAE. She is experienced in wholelanguage and skills-based teaching.

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