Examining the Validity of a Post-Entry Screening Tool Embedded in a Specific Policy Context

Abstract

Post-entry English language assessments (PELAs) have been instituted in many higher education contexts for the purpose of identifying the language needs of the linguistically and culturally diverse population of students entering English-medium universities around the world. The current chapter evaluates the validity of the Post-entry Assessment of Academic Language (PAAL), a PELA screening test trialled at two faculties (Engineering and Commerce) at a large Australian university. The chapter follows the approach to building an interpretative validity argument as outlined by Knoch and Elder (2013) and, by way of validity evidence, draws on data from the development phase of the test, its tri..