More than just a test of foreign-language skills

Every year, an increasing number of students take an English-language test so they will be eligible to study abroad. It comes as little surprise that they find these tests more difficult than those in Chinese.

But exhibiting mastery of a foreign language is not the only problem. In fact, it's not even the most important one.

"Students always worry about their limited vocabulary, grammar, the sentence structure and whatever. But the bigger issue is that they don't know how to have their own opinions, let alone defend them," said Zhang Di, a teacher for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the most widely respected English-language test in the world, recognized by more than 8,500 colleges, universities and agencies in 130 countries.