An Exploration of the English Proficiency Level of Government and Mission Secondary School Leavers
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Date
1987-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Today in Ethiopia, there is a widely heard academic common
talk, especially in the tertiary level of learning, about a great
variation in the English language proficiency level of governmenu
and mission secondary school graduatese The degree of this
diffierence has not so far been assessed.
The reserch desccibed in this paper attempted to examine
whether or not there was a significant difference in the English
language proficiency level of government and mission second~y
school leavers, usin~ two very well reputed instruments. These
instruments are the cloze procedure and the dictation, perhaps
the most qualified integrative tests of language proficiency. Since
constructing discrete-point proficiency tests is extremely difficult
for ordinary classroom teachers, like the writer of this paper,
unskilled in the technicalities of dev8loping such tests, these
two integrative tests, which are considered to be perhaps equally
valid and reliable to measure the language proficiency level of the
learner, have been employed as best alternative devices for the
purpose.
11.11 the possible necessary cautions essential in developing
such tests, have been taken in order to determine the gra~3 level
of the cloze and the dictation passages, the Fog Index, one of the
formulas currently used for the purpose has been used and according
to this formula all the cloze and the dictation passages have a difficulty
level of grade 12. In addition to this the personal
judgement of English language teachers in the Addis Ababa University,
about their fitness, has been considered.
They were validated against the Michign Test of English
Language Proficiency Form-Bo The results showed that the cloze and
the dictation tests used in this paper, correlated at .97. And in
order to examine their relinbility the Kuder Richardson formula
(Kr-21) has been adopted. This revealed a reliability coefficient
of .95 for the cloze ~nd .96 for the dictation tests.
The t-test technique was used to evaluate the differences in
the Mean scores of each test, so as to assess the extent of the
variations in the performance level of English between these two
groups of student. The findings showed that there is a singificant
difference between government and mission secondary school leavers
at p .001 level of confidence.
On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that selection
for admission of students into the colleges and the universities
has to be made on the basis of an English language proficiency test
or College Entrance English Language ~xamination, on the basis of
which placement of students into an appropriate program of English
language learning could be mnde so that each group can learn at a
pace commensurate nith its ability. An inquiry to make a thorough
revien of the English curriculum of the lower levels has also been
made. Further research on the subject has also been invited, so
that a reliable solution to the problem can be found.
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Keywords
Government and Mission