Understanding international graduate students’ language testing experience through narrative inquiry (original) (raw)

The purpose of this narrative study (Connelly & Clandinin, 2000) is to describe how international graduate students who are L2 users of English have negotiated English language proficiency tests such as TOEFL and IELTS in order to gain admission to one institution of higher education in Ontario, Canada. While critical language testing scholarship has described their gatekeeping nature (Shohamy, 2001), research has yet to explore the human side of high-stakes commercial English language tests. This project uses a Foucauldian framework (1982) which provides a theoretical lens to understand the power relations involved in this process. Our research sheds light on the interaction between student agency and the techniques of power that are embodied in institutional language policies and high-stakes language assessments. Narratives gathered through interviews will be coded and analysed thematically through NVIVO. We seek to uncover international students’ perspectives on the testing process itself (from test preparation to test completion) as well as their initial months at the university. Specifically, what supports are available to them and what challenges do they face during test preparation? How does this process of negotiation -- and the test itself -- affect international students in their initial months at the university? This research raises important questions relating to social justice and the consequential validity (Messick, 1995) of high stakes language tests. REFERENCES Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical inquiry, 777-795. Messick, S. (1995). Validity of psychological assessment: Validation of inferences from persons’ responses and performances as scientific inquiry into score meaning. American Psychologist, 50, 741–749. Shohamy, E. (2001). The power of tests: A critical perspective on the uses of language tests. Taylor & Francis