The assessment of academic literacy at pre-university level: a comparison of the utility of academic literacy tests and grade 10 Home Language results
Loading...
Date
2015-02
Authors
Myburgh, Jo-Mari
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The definition of academic literacy utilised for this study proposes that the
distinction-making activity accompanying academic discourse constitutes what
makes academic discourse unique, which at the same time also discloses that
academic discourse is a distinctive language with its own conditions, different from
other lingual spheres, as opposed to earlier definitions which often took a closed
view of language, regarding it as consisting of sound, form and meaning. A
construct deriving from such a specific definition of academic discourse therefore
acknowledges the shift in focus of language instruction and assessment brought on
by the communicative approach. An academic literacy test designed to establish the
academic literacy levels of prospective tertiary education students should therefore
be aligned with this construct. For this study, two academic literacy tests were
administered to two groups of Grade 10 students in order to determine how
accurately these tests would disclose the students’ levels of ability to handle
language for learning. The students’ school marks were then compared to the marks
received for the academic literacy tests. Although the school language marks
predicted the general academic performance of the test population more accurately
than the proposed academic literacy tests, the second test used came close to
predicting these levels almost as accurately as the school marks. Read in
conjunction with a number of other current studies, this result, however, still
emphasises the significance of and need for well-designed, construct-based and
correctly pitched (as regards level) academic literacy tests.
Description
Keywords
Language and languages -- Ability testing, Literacy -- Study and teaching (Secondary), Literacy, Undergraduates -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa, Dissertation (M.A. (Language Practice and Linguistics))--University of the Free State, 2015