Language Exams and Entrance Requirements: A 20-Year Update

Abstract

Twenty years ago, requiring language skills exam or similar testing tool for journalism and mass communication majors was relatively new and popular idea. In 1977 survey for the AEJ President's Committee on Journalism Language Skills, the authors found that about one in four responding journalism and mass communication programs (50 of 188; 27%) required students to take language skills exam or similar testing tool, and 52 other programs predicted back then that they soon would be adding such requirement.' It did not happen in such dramatic numbers. In this 1997 update by the same authors, 31 percent of responding journalism and mass communication programs (57 of 183) reported that they currently require language skills exam for majors. Another 7 percent (13 of 183) once had such requirement but no longer do. More than 60 percent of responding programs (113 of 183) have never required language exam for majors. Instead, the use of GPA entrance requirement has grown tenfold in popularity within two decades, with minimum 2.5 GPA on 4-point scale the most common stipulation. Currently, about four in 10 responding journalism and mass communication programs (72 of 183; 39%) have GPA entrance requirement in place, compared to four in 100 two decades ago (7 of 188; 4%). Background The concept of language exam for journalism and mass communication majors became topic of public discussion quarter of century ago. In 1973, an article in Journalism Educator warned that programs should not assume that high school and college composition courses adequately prepare students in the basics of grammar.2 That same year, the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina started program to identify students who needed remedial work in grammar and spelling. The school required students in their first writing course to score at least 70 percent on standardized test of writing skills; students who scored below 70 percent could repeat the test after doing remedial work.3 Remedial courses in journalism and mass communication programs arose in conjunction with language skills exams. In one experiment at New Mexico State, students who scored low in language pretest received remedial training and showed significant improvement in post-test scores.4 The 1977 survey by the AEJ President's Committee found that only seven journalism and mass communication programs had language exam before 1973. The peak expansion years were 197576, when 11 programs added such requirement, and 1976-77 when another 18 did so.5 The committee later reviewed commercial tests and found that none were wholly satisfactory, suggesting that journalism and mass communication schools may need to develop their own exams. In 1990, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Task Force of ASJMC called for journalism and mass communication programs to develop systems for making sure their students have a strong command of the rules of English grammar and usage.7 As Moberg noted the next year, language exams often are not intended to predict success in classes, but rather to weed out under-prepared students in crowded, popular program. These concerns led to the authors' decision to update their 1977 survey of language skills. A questionnaire was mailed to 411 degree-granting colleges and universities with courses organized under journalism or mass communications, as provided in AEJMC's 1996-97 Directory. One hundred eighty-three programs (45%) responded to the single mailing that went not only to the 104 journalism and mass communication programs accredited at the time, but also to hundreds of small programs tucked into English and communications departments. Survey findings Key findings from the 1997 survey are that the use of language skills exams has increased only marginally in the past 20 years, while the use of grade point average entrance requirements has escalated dramatically. …