How do we know that students have sufficient English language proficiency to participate effectively in their academic studies? Katie Dunworth, Curtin University AALL Symposium, Perth 2011
Unpacking the question ‘Universities are responsible for ensuring that their students are sufficiently competent in the English language to participate effectively in their university studies’ (GPP 1) ‘Universities ensure that the English language entry pathways they approve for the admission of students enable these students to participate effectively in their studies’ (GPP 4)
Unpacking the question By year – general proficiency in Year 1, academic literacy if assessed in Year 3 or at postgraduate level By content – e.g. quantitative or verbally based units By discipline – student mobility
Unpacking the question What do we mean by: • Sufficient level of English language proficiency? • Effective participation in studies? ‘the ability of students to use the English language to make and communicate meaning in spoken and written contexts while completing their university studies’.
What do we assess? General functional proficiency Discipline ‐ specific academic literacy Emphasis on EAL students Emphasis on a specific disciplinary cohort Skills ‐ based approach Task ‐ based approach Vocabulary, syntax, morphology, Style, register, rhetorical organisation, phonology, semantics, pragmatics text type differentiation, argumentation Generic content Discipline ‐ specific content DELNA Screening test, UniEnglish MASUS
How do we assess? • Test • Self ‐ assessment • Student assignments for content units
Who do we assess? • All students or selected groups based on type? • All students or those below a certain already measured level? • First year students or later years?
How do we assess? Education as a product Education as a process Language as generic capacity Language inseparable from discipline Language as transferable skills Language as a constituent of knowledge Language assessment as a separate task Language assessment as a constituent of content assessment Efficient delivery and maximum Labour intensive productivity of staff resources Separate, standardised instrument Focus variable according to individual student Students directed towards language Results of assessment impact on subsequent development services content Griffith English language strategy, DELA, Master of Accounting at Macquarie with the iDEAl, UniEnglish Centre for Macquarie English, Engineering Communication unit at UTS with ELSSA
Modes of assessment Level of obligation Format Mode Compulsory for EAL students Multiple choice Institution ‐ wide, generic Compulsory below a certain Writing task Unit or discipline based, measured level generic Compulsory for all Skills ‐ based assessment Embedded in marked assignments Optional Embedded task
Key questions • What do we assess? • Who do we assess? • How do we assess? • How do we use the information we obtain?
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