Abstract
Responding to calls for research into measurable English language outcomes from individual language support consultations at universities, this study investigated the effect of individual consultations (ICs) on the academic writing skills and lexico-grammatical competence of students who speak English as an additional language (EAL). Attendance by 31 EAL students at ICs was recorded, and samples of their academic writing texts before and after a 9-month interval were compared. Participants’ academic writing skills were rated, and lexico-grammatical irregularities were quantified. No statistically significant positive shifts manifested, due to the relatively short research period and limited participant uptake, but there were encouraging predictors of future shifts given continued utilization of the service. First, although a Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed no association between attendance at ICs and shifts in academic writing ability, a Spearman’s rho calculation suggested a tentative relationship to positive pre–post shifts in three academic writing sub-skills: Task Fulfillment, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Second, instances of four common lexico-grammatical irregularities (subject/verb, wrong word, plural/singular, and punctuation) declined at post-testing. Although only regular, sustained attendance would produce statistically significant shifts, there is a potential association between participants’ use of ICs and improved academic writing skills/lexico-grammatical competence.
Highlights
Recent years have seen a drive to implement positive changes in English language support and development practice in Australian higher education
This section addresses the two research questions posed earlier, that is, whether an association exists between individual consultations (ICs) attendance and shifts in academic writing/lexico-grammatical competence, and whether there is a relationship between extent of IC utilization and degree of shift
Because most participants only attended a small number of consultations, a measurable shift in any aspect of their academic writing competence was not expected
Summary
Recent years have seen a drive to implement positive changes in English language support and development practice in Australian higher education This has been spurred by Birrell, Hawthorne, and Richardson’s (2006) report evaluating Australia’s General Skilled Migration Categories, which noted that “many international students enter and exit Australian courses at IELTS levels far below the published guidelines” Another study by Birrell (2006) reported that one in three international students did not achieve an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) score of 6.0 (typically required for entry to tertiary institutions) by the end of their university programs These studies have placed the onus for ensuring adequate language skills on institutions, forcing universities to reappraise their language support practices. The specific practices vary between universities in terms of location and context (e.g., within a library or faculty or in a dedicated ALL unit or as part of a general support resource), the duration of sessions, the nomenclature (appointment, tutorial, session, drop-in), how students access the service (selfselect, referral, or both), and how frequently they can access
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