English Test Performance and The Contextual Factors On Tertiary Education

Gandy Griselda Quijano-Zavala,Rosa Adriana May-Meléndez,Magdalena Apasra Bandala-Garcés

doi:10.32996/jeltal.2021.3.10.1

Gandy Griselda Quijano-Zavala, Rosa Adriana May-Meléndez + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.32996/jeltal.2021.3.10.1

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Abstract

Even though English has remained an important element at different levels of education, studies in different parts of the world indicate that proficiency and performance in English can be a challenge. A specific example is the case of Mexico. Learning English has been stated as important in the Mexican education system for decades, yet, Mexico has held low proficiency in English for a long time. This study forms part of a larger mixed-methodology study of an institution of higher education in southeast Mexico. This paper aims to explore the descriptive results of 882 first-year university students on an English institutional test to study their language performance and the salient contextual factors. The test results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations using SPSS, version 21. The results show that students’ English test performance is mostly low. Independent sample t-tests indicate that while gender is not an influencing factor on test performance, higher exam scores are associated with the type of high school education.

Highlights

1 English is a global language, and it is used for communication among speakers of other languages
Studies that show results on test performance and contextual factors are useful to reflect on the teaching practices at university
This study did not show a significant difference in gender, other studies exploring this factor have shown that there are important differences in terms of choice of learning strategies and linguistics skills between genders

Summary

Introduction

1 English is a global language, and it is used for communication among speakers of other languages. Most learners of English outnumber native English speakers (Ur, 2012). The rapid growth of English as an international language has led to an increasing interest to be proficient in English. The access to communication and information by means of English as an international language is undeniable. Millions of students around the world study English at different levels of education and for different purposes; for example, many would like to engage in a cultural exchange, others wish to escalate the work ladder, while many others must study the language at school as part of the education system. While there are learners who seem to learn it with no apparent effort, there are learners who face difficulties to be proficient in a second language (L2)

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