Article In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics: Online-First ArticlesAcademic and general language proficiency in post-entry language assessment
Linguistic predictors of domestic L1 student achievement in the first year of university education
In higher education systems with no or low entry requirements for domestic students, post-entry language
assessments (PELAs) are often used to detect at-risk students. This study investigates how two language proficiency measures
relate to students’ academic achievement: an academic reading and vocabulary (ARV) screening test, and the computer test of the
Interuniversitaire Taaltest Nederlands voor Anderstaligen (ITNA), a Dutch L2-entrance test. The ARV screening
test, ITNA and its language in use subtest show moderate to weak correlations with achievement. While the ARV screening test
selects a large potential at-risk group; the few students failing the ITNA, language in use or scoring lower than ‘very good’ on
language in use have a higher risk of underperforming. When controlling for students’ background variables, only academic language
proficiency remains a significant predictor. While academic language proficiency seems more appropriate as a PELA construct,
general language proficiency may identify a small, but high-risk group.
Keywords: post-entry language assessment, predictive validity, first-year university students, academic language proficiency, general language proficiency
Article outline
- Introduction
- Language proficiency and academic achievement
- Data and methods
- Participants and background variables
- Language measures
- Analyses
- Results
- Discussion
- Limitations
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
-
References
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