Assessing academic literacy in a multilingual society : transition and transformation
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Assessing academic literacy in a multilingual society : transition and transformation
(New perspectives on language and education, 84)
Multilingual Matters, c2021
- : hbk
Available at 3 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
South African universities face major challenges in meeting the needs of their students in the area of academic language and literacy. The dominant medium of instruction in the universities is English and, to a much lesser extent, Afrikaans, but only a minority of the national population are native speakers of these languages. Nine other languages can be media of instruction in schools, which makes the transition to tertiary education difficult enough in itself for students from these schools. The focus of this book is on procedures for assessing the academic language and literacy levels and needs of students, not in order to exclude students from higher education but rather to identify those who would benefit from further development of their ability in order to undertake their degree studies successfully. The volume also aims to bring the innovative solutions designed by South African educators to a wider international audience.
Table of Contents
Introduction. John Read and Colleen Du Plessis: A Global Perspective on the South African Context
Part I: Conceptual Foundations: Policy, Construct, Learning Potential
Chapter 1. Theo du Plessis: Institutional Language Policy and Academic Literacy in South African Higher Education
Chapter 2. Albert Weideman: A Skills-neutral Approach to Academic Literacy Assessment
Chapter 3. Tobie van Dyk, Piet Murre and Herculene Kotze: Does One Size Fit All? Some Considerations for Test Translation
Chapter 4. Alan Cliff: The Use of Mediation and Feedback in a Standardised Test of Academic Literacy: Theoretical and Design Considerations
Part II: Assessing Academic Literacy at Secondary School Level
Chapter 5. Colleen du Plessis: Basic Education and Academic Literacy: Conflicting Constructs in the South African National Senior Certificate (NSC) Language Examination
Chapter 6. Jo-Mari Myburgh-Smit and Albert Weideman: How Early Should We Measure Academic Literacy? The Usefulness of an Appropriate Test of Academic Literacy for Grade 10 Students
Chapter 7. Sanet Steyn: Pathways to Parity between Parallel Tests of Language Ability: Lessons from a Project
Part III: Assessing Discipline-specific Needs at University
Chapter 8. Kabelo Sebolai: Generic Academic Literacy Testing: A Logical Precursor for Faculty-specific Language Teaching and Assessment
Chapter 9. Avasha Rambiritch, Linda Alston and Marien Graham: Diagnosing with Care: The Academic Literacy Needs of Theology Students
Chapter 10. Laura Drennan: Assessing Readiness to Write: the Design of an Assessment of Preparedness to Present Multimodal Information (APPMI)
Postscript. Tobie van Dyk: What the Data Tell us: An Overview of Language Assessment Research in South Africa's Multilingual Context
by "Nielsen BookData"