The National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy: How might it be used to support teaching in higher education?
Journal Article
2015
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Journal Title
Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Publisher
University of Cape Town
License
Series
Abstract
The National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy is designed to assess the ability of first-year students to cope with the typical language-of-instruction, academic reading and reasoning demands they will face on entry to higher education. Drawing on quantitative data, this paper reports on the overall performance levels of a large-scale (n = 6500) national sample of test-takers who took the test as applicants for the 2013 intake into higher education. Overall test-taker performance is disaggregated by performance on sub-scales of the overall construct of academic literacy. The argument is made that the National Benchmark Test provides a framework for a nuanced and practicable understanding of test-takers’ academic literacy ‘proficiencies’. The conclusion to the paper evaluates the extent to which the test enables higher education lecturers’ greater engagement with students’ academic literacy shortcomings and with research-led information aimed at the improvement of teaching and learning.
Description
Keywords
Reference:
Cliff, A. (2015). The National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy: how might it be used to support teaching in higher education?. Language Matters, 46(1), 3-21.