Making sense of the Language Barrier; The Case of BA Social Science Students Recruited Under the Relaxed Scheme of Admission in 2003

Abstract

The BA Degree Programme in Social Sciences has been in existence for a period of more than ten years. It is offered exclusively in the medium of English. Therefore a predetermined level of English language proficiency is a prerequisite for the admission to this programme. Thus, only those candidates who have successfully completed English for Social Sciences (SSF 1304) or obtained a minimum of 50 marks in the English Grading Test were allowed to register for the programme initially. As such the admission criterion for the programme is perceived as ‘somewhat exclusive’. However, being quite appreciative of the difficulties arising from this ‘language barrier’ to entry, the Department of Social Studies with the assistance of the Language Studies Department took concerted effort to facilitate the acquisition of language proficiency of the learners at the Foundation levels as well as the undergraduate level. One of the most recent changes towards this direction has been the relaxation of regulations to enable learners with LSE 0103 qualification or grading test marks between 49-20 to register for a regular course of their choice of the degree programme while following their English course pertaining to SSF 1304. This revision was expected to provide an added motivation to students to “continue with their studies in Social Sciences” while simultaneously acquiring their English language proficiency. It was also expected that by learning study materials of the degree course proper will complement their language learning process on the one hand and motivate them to continue with their degree studies. As an integral part of their post secondary studies this facility will provide an opportunity to learn the second language ‘step by step’. The acquisition of second language proficiency in the context of higher education is an area that has been examined extensively by many authors (Yan et al, 2003; Collier, 1989; Vazquez et al, 1997). This is particularly so with respect to learning difficulties and their impact on learner performance of second language learners. In a way it creates a ‘barrier to learning’ and hence it shrinks opportunities (UNESCO, 2005). Findings of these studies on acquisition of language proficiency can be broadly reclassified into three groups of factors, i.e., individual, institutional and social domains that impinge on their studies. Of them individual factors include, problems of isolation (Brown, 1996;); learner motivation (Chapelle, 1997), learning styles (Warschaner, 1998), and ‘baseline proficiency’ (Lambert, 1991). Institutional factors cover among others, technology ( Johnstone and Krauth, 1996) student support and competence of teachers ( Gardiner, 1997), quality of study material and comprehensible inputs (Creed and Koul, 1992), and supplementary inputs (Boyle, 1995). The social factors includes inter-learner interactions (Moor and Kearsley, 1996), culture (Graddol, 1993) on the one hand and threatening climate that impede language acquisition on the other (Krashen, 1985). Mere presence of the above factors although is important, it is their intensity that makes language acquisition easy and relatively less demanding. The absence of these conditions makes language learning difficult giving rise to high incidence of learner attrition. The context of learning of the students following the BA degree programme appears to capture most of the factors discussed above as the conditions of their learning is very much akin to the broad framework of factors presented therein. The objectives of this study are to evaluate learner performance of those students selected under the two different criteria (new criterion in relation to the old criterion) to ascertain whether the expectations of the new scheme have been adequately achieved. The paper therefore attempts to address the following research questions. Has the new scheme made the study programme more inclusive? Has there been a discernable difference in the CA and the final examination results of those students registered with marks between 20-49 category in comparison with those who have acquired more than 50 marks? What are the salient characteristics of learners that impinge on their persistence and success? What are the other intervening factors that have affected student performance of these learners? The methodology used for this study took the form of comparative analysis of performance of the two categories of students i.e., those learners registered under the new criterion and those who were registered under the old criterion. It used secondary data maintained by the Department of Examination to assess learner performance which were supplemented by a series of focus group interviews conducted to ascertain learning difficulties and factors affecting learner performance. The study team compared changes of learner enrolment, continuous assessment records and completion and success rates data with a view to check whether there is a significant difference between the two groups that warrant the continuation of the changes suggested. On the whole the study delineated that the response to the scheme with respect to enrolment was encouraging as there was an increase of student admission by percent. It was also found that about … per cent of this increase was those registered under the new scheme. On the contrary, the learner performance of those registered under the new scheme was quite disappointing. It was found that there was a relationship between admission test marks and learner performance with respect to examination outcomes. This was particularly so with respect to those learners who registered for Mass Communication and Sociology. This means that in general poor baseline proficiency of English language operates as a barrier to learning social sciences. The severity of this influence increases for subjects like sociology and mass communication which require higher proficiency of the language for both comprehension and expression of ideas. Many learners have acquainted with the concepts and usage of economic terms either at school or in their foundation courses. As the discipline of economics involves computations, graphical presentations and formulae etc. learning economics and answering examination questions successfully appear to be relatively easy. The study has also shown that ‘inter-learner interactions’ make learning easy and this has positively contributed to those learners depended more on group studies. However this was feasible for those learners living in the metropolitan areas of the western province. On the contrary, those learners from remote areas are handicapped as they are more scattered and hence ‘isolated’. These learners do not have the support that the urban students receive from their family and community. It also makes ‘face-to-face’ contact between learners and learners and/ or earners and teachers more difficult. There is also evidence that ‘culture’ of second language usage has made it difficult for the weak learners to acquire English proficiency for fear of making mistakes and dangers of such mistakes being made public. It was found that the elements of ‘Kaduwa’ perception that is common among students of the conventional universities are present among the OU students as well. The environment in the day schools is found threatening as discussions are generally dominated by those students who are proficient in English. This often causes a stigma in the minds of those who are less proficient in English. The perception that mistakes are not tolerated by the peer students compounds this situation. There is a perception that even if these learners come prepared to the class it is those learners who command better proficiency in the language that dominate in the class discussions. The time pressure on the teachers to cover text material pertaining to approximately 25 long lessons seemed to make teachers helpless. One of the major drawbacks as seen by the learners of the category whose baseline English proficiency is weak is the non availability of supplementary inputs such as additional ‘face-to-face’ sessions, supplementary materials, and translations of summaries all of which have tremendous cost to their learning. Some learners perceive that even CA marks are skewed towards those who have good command of English. Some of these feelings may be more perceived than real. But the fact that such feelings are prevalent should be taken into account by the programme planners. The paper makes an assortment of recommendations to make learning a more rewarding exercise to the second language learners whose baseline proficiency is relatively weak. en_US