Unguaranteed Proficiency Level upon Graduation:A P...
In 2019，the Chinese Program of the University of Melbourne have enrolled over 2 000 students，but only 4 of them are graduated from VCE Chinese CLS.They do not have any Chinese heritage in their family but showed striking differences in language proficiency level and class performance.Two of the CLS graduates reported difficulty to study at the same level with other VCE Chinese SL students due to the much smaller vocabulary and short in grammar knowledge.They also reported difficulty in understating listening materials or participating in class discussion.As a consequence，both students are placed at a lower study level.
On the contrary，the other two CLS graduates studied with SL graduates，and have achieved highly by the end of the year.They are top students in the cohort，and have been active in both class participation and external activates.Both of them have won several Chinese language-related competitions and rewards during school years and keep participating China-based programs during the first year in the university.
From the informal feedback of these students，all of them showed positive about continue learning Chinese.However，the two top students already showed strong confidence in pursuing a China-related career in the future，while the other two are more reluctant to make the decision.The two top performers also suggested that their families’connection with China，having parents working with China-related business and travelling to China often，influenced their passion in learning and encouraged their efforts to achieve high-level proficiency in Chinese.
The limited evidence above seems to suggest that CLSgraduates may not be able to achieve the same proficiency level as SL graduates after Year 12，unless their families already have close connection with China.