A Case for Faculty Involvement in EAP Placement Testing‪.‬

Introduction Language proficiency assessment for international applicants is common practice for most educational institutes and usually involves administering some type of commercially available or locally developed English placement examination (Alderson, Krahnke, & Stansfield, 1987; Chalhoub-Deville & Turner, 2000; Kahn, Butler, Weigle, & Sato, 1994; Paltridge, 1992; Person, 2002; Rees, 1999; Roemer, 2002; Seaman & Hayward, 2000). If the language assessment indicates that the applicant does not have the necessary skills, many institutes offer English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs to develop these skills. In this situation, the purpose of the language proficiency testing shifts from admission to placement. Although placement testing may not be as high-stakes as admissions testing, its effect is significant. For students it can delay or prolong their studies; for EAP programs inappropriately placed students may jeopardize the quality and integrity of the course sequence. Therefore, accurate EAP placement testing is crucial. To date, most of the empirical research has focused on the predictive validity of language proficiency testing for admissions rather than for EAP placement (Ayers & Quattlebaum, 1992; Light, Xu, & Mossop, 1987; Johnson, 1988). One exception was a study conducted by Wall, Clapham, and Alderson (1994) in which they explored the concurrent validity of the Lancaster University Institute for English Language Education (IELE) placement test. This study found significant correlations between students' self-assessments and their scores on the IELE reading writing and listening subtests (r=.30, .41, .51 respectively, p.05); and between language teachers' assessments and all the IELE subtests (r range from .47 to .78, p.01). However, Wall et al. concluded that little could be inferred from these correlations and that further research into validating placement testing was needed. Another study of California's English as a Second Language (ESL) Placement procedures by Kahn et al. (1994) revealed that most adult education agencies in California used a commercial or agency-made test to place ESL students and that over half these agencies were satisfied with the accuracy of their placement. This study did not provide any correlation data between test scores and achievement in the ESL programs/courses offered by the agencies.