Introduction Practice 2

The Link Between Academic Success and L2 Proficiency in the Context of Two Professional Programs

Move 1 - As the number of international students attending tertiary institutions continues to increase, there has been a renewed interest in the possible predictive power of any measure of L2 proficiency for subsequent academic success. Graham (1987) provides a review of the major studies conducted previous to her summary article. What emerges from her review is a great deal of variability in the results over the previous 30 years. Some of the studies reviewed showed no link at all between L2 proficiency and academic success (Hwang & Dizney, 1970; Mulligan, 1966; Shay, 1975; Sugimoto, 1966), while others reported low but significant
correlations (Gue & Holdaway, 1973; Light, Xu, & Mossop, 1987) and still others reported what they called significant correlations(Burgess & Greis, 1970). Graham (1987) attributes these mixed results to a variety of problems inherent in the studies themselves. - Move 2
A more recent study by Kerstjens and Nery (2000), which attempts to predict academic success in two populations of business students at the undergraduate level, has also yielded mixed results. The test used in this case was the International English Language Test System (IELTS), which, like the CanTEST - the ESL instrument used in this ESL study - is more communicatively based than the TOEFL and includes measures of listening and reading comprehension and writing. The authors' most clear-cut finding was that the reading section of the test was the only significant predictor of academic performance for one group (but not the other) and for the two groups combined. In the first case, the variance accounted for was 9.1%; in the second case it was 8.4%. - Move 2
Move 1 : by introducing and reviewing previous research
Move 2 : by indicating the need to extend or revise previous knowledge in some way

Move 3 - The two studies will be described separately; the implications of each study with regard to any findings will then be discussed together. For both studies, the research objective was to investigate the predictive validity of the language tests used and the other available
measures with regard to academic success. The research questions were the following:

1 To what extent does the CanTEST predict the subsequent academic performance of international students in the Faculty of Administration as measured by their GPA? Are any of the individual tests of listening, reading, and writing critical to academic success?

2 To what extent does the French test predict the subsequent academic performance of Francophone and Anglophone students in the Faculty of Civil Law as measured by their GPA? Are any of the individual tests of listening, reading, and writing critical to academic success? Does the incoming academic average of these students impact on GPA?

In the case of the ESL study, one further question was
3 What are international students. perceptions of the relationship between their own ESL proficiency and academic performance? To what extent do these perceptions corroborate the more objective correlations undertaken between CanTEST scores and academic grades?
The quantitative data for both studies were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational studies, and stepwise regression.
by outlining the plan of development