Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti

Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti

English has now become the lingua franca of much of technological, business and academic endeavours. Consequently, learning the English language is now seen as vital, especially at the university level where proficiency in the language has become a selection criterion. At present, the Malaysian Univ...

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Main Author: Abd Samad, Arshad
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: ACRULeT, Faculty of Education & UiTM Press 2008
Online Access:http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/342/
http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/342/1/AJ_ARSHAD%20ABD%20SAMAD%20AJUE%2008.pdf
id uitm-342
recordtype eprints
spelling uitm-3422017-12-26T08:27:23Z http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/342/ Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti Abd Samad, Arshad English has now become the lingua franca of much of technological, business and academic endeavours. Consequently, learning the English language is now seen as vital, especially at the university level where proficiency in the language has become a selection criterion. At present, the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) has been adopted by Malaysian public universities as an indicator of English language proficiency. A student’s overall result depends on all the four language components of the MUET and often determines the number and nature of the English language courses he or she has to attend at university. This study seeks to examine whether MUET is an accurate predictor of performance and success at university and how the MUET can be finetuned as an entry level English language test. It was carried out among 52 third year undergraduates of the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia, admitted into the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) programme. The findings of the study do not offer conclusive evidence about the validity of MUET as a predictor of academic success. However, six models of various combinations of scores on language components on the MUET scores are examined in terms of their effectiveness in increasing the accuracy in selecting students for the TESL programme. The correlations obtained using these models indicate that the combination of various components of the MUET can be used to more accurately predict student achievement at tertiary level than the cumulative MUET score itself. The results of these correlations and their implications in using language tests as admission requirements in general are also discussed. ACRULeT, Faculty of Education & UiTM Press 2008-06 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/342/1/AJ_ARSHAD%20ABD%20SAMAD%20AJUE%2008.pdf Abd Samad, Arshad (2008) Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti. Asian Journal of University Education (AJUE), 4 (1). pp. 57-68. ISSN 1823-7797
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Teknologi MARA
building UiTM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description English has now become the lingua franca of much of technological, business and academic endeavours. Consequently, learning the English language is now seen as vital, especially at the university level where proficiency in the language has become a selection criterion. At present, the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) has been adopted by Malaysian public universities as an indicator of English language proficiency. A student’s overall result depends on all the four language components of the MUET and often determines the number and nature of the English language courses he or she has to attend at university. This study seeks to examine whether MUET is an accurate predictor of performance and success at university and how the MUET can be finetuned as an entry level English language test. It was carried out among 52 third year undergraduates of the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia, admitted into the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) programme. The findings of the study do not offer conclusive evidence about the validity of MUET as a predictor of academic success. However, six models of various combinations of scores on language components on the MUET scores are examined in terms of their effectiveness in increasing the accuracy in selecting students for the TESL programme. The correlations obtained using these models indicate that the combination of various components of the MUET can be used to more accurately predict student achievement at tertiary level than the cumulative MUET score itself. The results of these correlations and their implications in using language tests as admission requirements in general are also discussed.
format Article
author Abd Samad, Arshad
spellingShingle Abd Samad, Arshad
Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti
author_facet Abd Samad, Arshad
author_sort Abd Samad, Arshad
title Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti
title_short Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti
title_full Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti
title_fullStr Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti
title_full_unstemmed Refining English language tests for university admission: a Malaysian example / Arshad Abd Samad, Sharifah Zainab Syed Abd Rahman, and Siti Norbaiti
title_sort refining english language tests for university admission: a malaysian example / arshad abd samad, sharifah zainab syed abd rahman, and siti norbaiti
publisher ACRULeT, Faculty of Education & UiTM Press
publishDate 2008
url http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/342/
http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/342/1/AJ_ARSHAD%20ABD%20SAMAD%20AJUE%2008.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T22:44:27Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T22:44:27Z
_version_ 1777417130693623808

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