Validating the performance standards set for language assessments of academic readiness : the case of Stellenbosch University

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dc.contributor.authorSebolai, Kabeloen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-15T09:27:43Zen_ZA
dc.date.available2021-11-15T09:27:43Zen_ZA
dc.date.issued2019-09-12en_ZA
dc.descriptionCITATION: Sebolai, K. 2019. Validating the performance standards set for language assessments of academic readiness: The case of Stellenbosch University. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 56:79-95. doi:10.5842/56-0-796en_ZA
dc.descriptionThe original publication is available at https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/puben_ZA
dc.description.abstractTwenty-five years into the post-apartheid period, South African universities still struggle to produce the number of graduates required for the country’s socio-economic development. The reason most often cited for this challenge is the mismatch that seems to exist between the knowledge that learners leave high school with, and the kind that academic education requires them to possess for success. This gap, also known as the “articulation gap”, has been attributed to, amongst others, the levels of academic language ability among arriving students. The school-leaving English examination, and a pre-university test of academic literacy are the commonly used measures to determine these levels. The aim of this article is to investigate whether predetermined standards of performance on these assessments relate positively with academic performance. In order to determine this, Pearson Correlations and an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were carried out on the scores obtained for these assessments by a total of 836 first-year students enrolled at Stellenbosch University. The results show that the performance standards set for the standardised test of academic literacy associate positively with first-year academic performance, while the scores on the levels of performance set for the school-leaving English examination do not.en_ZA
dc.description.urihttps://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/796en_ZA
dc.description.versionPublisher’s versionen_ZA
dc.format.extent17 pagesen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSebolai, K. 2019. Validating the performance standards set for language assessments of academic readiness: The case of Stellenbosch University. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 56:79-95. doi:10.5842/56-0-796en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2224-3380 (online)en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1726-541X (print)en_ZA
dc.identifier.otherdoi:10.5842/56-0-796en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/123451en_ZA
dc.language.isoen_ZAen_ZA
dc.publisherStellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.rights.holderAuthors retain copyrighten_ZA
dc.subjectLanguage and languages -- Ability testingen_ZA
dc.subjectAcademic achievementen_ZA
dc.subjectEducation, Higher -- South Africaen_ZA
dc.subjectPerformance levelsen_ZA
dc.subjectAcademic languageen_ZA
dc.subjectAcademic performanceen_ZA
dc.titleValidating the performance standards set for language assessments of academic readiness : the case of Stellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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