The relationship of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and other critical variables to the academic performance of international graduate students.

摘要

This analysis presents the findings of two parallel studies of the relationship between English language proficiency scores and the academic performance of international graduate students. The studies were conducted in order to answer three research questions: (1) the relationship between language proficiency scores and academic performance for international graduate students; (2) intra-group differences on the measures in the first question when the subjects were grouped according to major field, native language, native country, and English language study in the U.S.; and (3) the relationship between faculty advisers' perceptions of the language needs of their international graduate students and the results of the first two research questions.;The subjects were international students who had begun graduate study at the University of Minnesota in 1979 (N = 196) and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980 (N = 522). The dependent variable was graduate grade-point average (GPA), and the independent variables were a graduate school rating of previous academic preparation and the three section scores of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL): Listening Comprehension (L/C), Structure and Written Expression (S + W), and Reading and Vocabulary (R + V).;Statistically significant relationships between GPA and the independent variables were found in both studies. Although the actual amount of variance accounted for was 21% in the Minnesota study and only 7% in the Wisconsin study, both figures were considered respectable in the context of the graduate GPA prediction literature for native speakers of English. The R + V section accounted for the greatest amount of variance in GPA in both studies, while the L/C section was not a predictor. Significant differences were found among the TOEFL scores for the groups in the second research question, but GPA was generally stable across all groups. The results on the academic needs questionnaire used to answer the third research question indicated that reading followed by understanding lectures and writing were thought to be the most important academic language skills.;The analysis discusses the implications of the findings for graduate schools, individual departments and ESL programs, and suggests several directions for future test development and research.