<p>The purpose of this research is to reveal and compare the language
proficiency profiles of Purdue’s Chinese and Indian graduate applicants in
various disciplines to take a step towards the development of Language
Proficiency Literacy (LPL) of graduate admissions decision makers. The study
argues that before being able to offer LPL development opportunities to
admissions decision-makers, language testers need to gain admissions literacy
in their specific academic context. One way this can be achieved is by
analyzing graduate admissions data to see patterns of test score use in each
discipline and to reveal language proficiency profiles of graduate applicants.
Providing admissions decision makers with information about the linguistic
characteristics of their applicants can be a very helpful step towards
enhancing LPL in the context of graduate admissions. </p>
<p>One of the analyses conducted towards the goal LPL
development in the context of graduate admissions was a Cluster Analysis
procedure followed by a Chi-square analysis to compare the language proficiency
profiles of graduate applicants from various L1 backgrounds based on scores on
the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The study found three
language proficiency profiles in graduate applicants’ TOEFL data: 1) the
‘unbalanced’ profile, which consists of applicants who have higher scores in
the subskills of reading and listening, and comparatively lower scores on
speaking and writing, 2) the ‘balanced medium’ profile, which represents
students who have moderate scores across all four subskills, and 3) the
‘balanced high’ profile, which consists of applicants who have high scores
across all four subskills. The study found evidence for the interaction between
graduate applicant test-takers’ L1 background and belonging to a balanced or an
unbalanced language proficiency profile, which highlights the importance of
considering subskill scores in addition the total score when using language
proficiency test scores to select graduate students from specific L1
backgrounds.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/15054471 |
| Date | 26 July 2021 |
| Creators | Sharareh Taghizadeh Vahed (11185131) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/THE_USE_OF_LANGUAGE_PROFICIENCY_TEST_SCORES_IN_GRADUATE_ADMISSIONS/15054471 |
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