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“EXCELLENCE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE” P A G E 115 Do University Students Have Mastery of the English Language? Editor’s Note: Students’ performance in English Language and the importance of effective communication skills in everyday life and in the world of work, underscore the relevance of the research on this topic conducted by UTech’s researchers. Unsurprisingly, the Gleaner carried an article (reproduced below) highlighting the findings. English Tests Trip Up University Students “A study conducted by researchers from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), has found that 40 per cent of students enrolled at the institution fail English-based communication courses, with the majority of the other 60 per cent barely managing a passing grade each year. The study, which was undertaken by UTech’s Department of Liberal Studies using data collected between 2000 and 2010, also found a 40 per cent failure rate among students sitting the university’s English language proficiency test. The proficiency test, which measures the reading and writing skills of all new students accepted to pursue UTech courses, was introduced in 2008. It determines whether students proceed directly to the first-year Academic Writing One course based on their test performance, or take a developmental English programme, which prepares them for the course. A sample conducted of 430 first-year students also showed the majority of those struggling to pass communication courses previously attended traditional high schools. The study also examined factors contributing to the students’ failure in communication courses, including their inability to comprehend effectively, unfamiliarity with words and phrases, poor student attitude to language, as well as weak language skills and overcrowding at the primary-school level. Clover Jones-McKenzie, who heads UTech’s Communication Division at the Department of Liberal Studies, presented the findings at a workshop in Kingston last Friday examining the transferability of Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) skills to tertiary institutions. Jones-McKenzie said the situation, in addition to causing high levels of frustration among UTech lecturers, had also raised concern among employers who have observed an increase in the number of tertiary-level graduates using SMS text-messaging language in formal documents. The UTech lecturer said while the students had fulfilled the university’s CSEC English and math matriculation requirements, deficiencies in reading and comprehension posed challenges when it came to employing critical thinking skills. “We don’t want to give the wrong impression; it’s not right across the board,” Dr Judith Orogun, another of the researchers involved in the study, told The Gleaner in an interview following the release of the findings. Published: Monday | December 6, 2010 | Gleaner Philip Hamilton, Gleaner Writer