Negotiating the boundary between achievement and proficiency: An evaluation of the exit standard of an academic English pathway program

dc.contributor.authorMacqueen, Susy
dc.contributor.authorO'Hagan, Sally
dc.contributor.authorHughes, Brad
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-08T01:35:51Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.date.updated2020-12-20T07:44:41Z
dc.description.abstractAcademic English programs are popular pathways into English-medium university courses across the world. A typical program design hinges on an established university entrance standard, e.g. IELTS 6.5, and extrapolates the timing and structure of the pathway stages in relation to the test standard. The general principle is that the course assessments substitute for the test standard so that successful completion of the course is considered equivalent to achieving the minimum test standard for university entrance. This study reports on an evaluation of such course assessments at a major Australian university. The evaluation undertook to determine the appropriateness of the exit standard in relation to an independent measure of academic English ability. It also explored the suitability of the course final assessments used to produce measures in relation to that standard: by investigating the robustness of the processes and instruments and their appropriateness in relation to the course and the target academic domain. The evaluation was revealing about the difficult relationship between best practice in achievement testing in academic English pathway programs and external proficiency test standards. Using the sociological concept of ‘boundary object’ worlds (Star & Griesemer, 1989), we suggest that program evaluations that arise from a specific institutional concern for meeting adequate language standards can be informative about interactions between assessments in use.en_AU
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_AU
dc.identifier.issn2201-0009en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/262957
dc.language.isoen_AUen_AU
dc.publisherUniversity of Melbourneen_AU
dc.rights© 2016 The authorsen_AU
dc.sourcePapers in Language Testing and Assessmenten_AU
dc.titleNegotiating the boundary between achievement and proficiency: An evaluation of the exit standard of an academic English pathway programen_AU
dc.typeJournal articleen_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.issue1en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage123en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage107en_AU
local.contributor.affiliationMacqueen, Susan (Susy), College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANUen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationO'Hagan, Sally, University of Melbourneen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationHughes, Brad, University of Technology Sydneyen_AU
local.contributor.authoremailu1016955@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.contributor.authoruidMacqueen, Susan (Susy), u1016955en_AU
local.description.embargo2099-12-31
local.description.notesImported from ARIESen_AU
local.identifier.absfor200401 - Applied Linguistics and Educational Linguisticsen_AU
local.identifier.absseo950202 - Languages and Literacyen_AU
local.identifier.ariespublicationu9803255xPUB1538en_AU
local.identifier.citationvolume5en_AU
local.identifier.thomsonID000410131100007
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByu9803255en_AU
local.publisher.urlhttps://www.semanticscholar.org/en_AU
local.type.statusPublished Versionen_AU

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