Norwegian university students’ Academic
English reading proficiency in 2001 and 2013
– with a look at upper secondary school
exit skills
Associate Professor
Glenn Ole Hellekjær,
Department of Teacher Education and
School Research, UiO
Two“longitudinal” studies
• Self-assessment and IELTS reading data from
• 2001– 2013 university level
• 2002-2011– upper secondary level
• Changes between 2001 to 2013
• The Pisa studies-> strong focus on reading
• LK06 and LK13 curricula -> focus on reading
• Increased media exposure to English
Overview
•
•
•
•
A brief look at academic reading
The university study
Upper secondary school data
Conclusion and discussion
A Vital Skill: Reading Academic English
• Upper secondary school is to develop “study
competency”- in Norwegian as well as English
• Norwegian students have long needed to be able to read
English texts and textbooks, prior to that German
textbooks
• Recently there has been a recent and gradual increase in
the number of Norwegian textbooks for undergraduate
students at the expense of English, Swedish and Danish
• Graduate level students and those in certain subject
areas can have most or all of their reading in English
Academic reading
• Reading is the process of receiving and interpreting
information encoded in language form via the medium of
print (meaning creation)
• University students read for a purpose:
– To obtain information (facts, data)
– To understand ideas or theories, etc.
– To discover author’ viewpoints
– To seek evidence for their own points of view (and to
quote and cite) all of which may be needed for writing
their essays, etc.
– In a foreign language- also handle the language
The baseline study
Baseline study:
• my 2005 doctoral thesis, The Acid Test:Does Upper
Secondary EFL Instruction Effectively Prepare
Norwegian Students for the Reading of English
Textbooks at Colleges and Universities?
1. Survey of 578 university students (self-assessment) - 2001
2. Validation study with 53 university students, self-assessment
+ IELTS-2001
3. 217 upper secondary school students, IELTS reading test2001
The 2013 study: university level
• Mixed-methods
• Self- assessment +
interviews
• Used my validated
scales
• Surveyed 141 beginner
students with English
texts
• 5 interviews
How do Norwegian beginner students’
experience the reading of English course
material at university?
A mixed-methods study
Elise Sivertsen Arnsby
Masteravhandling ved Institutt for lærerutdanning og
skoleforskning, Engelsk fagdidaktikk
UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Fall 2013
Arnsby’s sample
Faculty
Course
Respondents
Faculty of Natural KJM1110
Sciences
77
Faculty of
Mathematics
STK1100
29
Faculty of Social
Sciences
SOSANT16000
36
Total
142
The scales
• Indicate on the scale from 1 to 7 how quickly you read the texts on your
reading list
• Indicate on the scale from 1 to 7 how many words you do not understand
in the texts on your reading list
• Indicate on the scale from 1 to 7 to what extent you find the sentences in
the text difficult to understand
• Indicate on the scale from 1 to 7 to what extent you find the texts
coherent when reading
• Indicate on the scale from 1 to 7 to what degree the information in the
text is so densely presented that it hinders your understanding of the
content
• Indicate on the scale from 1 to 7 to what extent you find the content of
the texts understandable
• Validated, r=0.72 with IELTS scores (2001, N=53)
Comparison mean scores
Hellekjær 2001
Mean
scores
Standard
Deviation
Responden
ts
Arnsby 2013
Norwegian
English
Norwegian
English
5.7
4.6
5.5
4.8
.7
1.1
.92
1.0
142
572
Comparison of distribution
Hellekjær 2001
Arnsby 2013
34% 4
or
below
41% Linguistic
Threshold
24% 4
or
below
Study experience - no
effect
27% Linguistic
Threshold
Comments in open ended questions - Arnsby
• I think its fine reading English, but it takes more time.
• I become frustrated when I have to spend a full study day on
one text because I have to look up words all the time, the
result is that I have a very poor understanding of the English
course material on the reading list.
• I really struggle with English in general, and did not know that
the subject I am studying requires that high an English level.
The subject consists of many difficult words from the start,
and with English as well it becomes even more difficult.
Therefore I am considering changing studies next year.
The qualitative follow-up
Bob is struggling with reading: I met with a guidance counselor who
said that that English would not be of use in regards to a
workplace in science
Peter says: English should be obligatory all three years of upper
secondary school.
All five say they would have benefitted from additional English
instruction in upper secondary school
From upper secondary to university 1
• Nick about upper secondary English: No, it wasn’t very
challenging.
• He (and the other four) finds reading at university far more
demanding than at upper secondary: Oh yes, oh my God yes,
it (the difference) is quite significant”
• Nick, and Bob, argue the need for an upper secondary course
in Scientific English: it would have been a nice preparation to
have an English that was relevant, and maybe it would have
made me more used to reading this type of texts, and I would
perhaps be more efficient when reading. (Bob)
From upper secondary to university 2
All five felt that they had received too little information about
what would be required at university
• Matt: I think they should spend more time on informing
seniors in upper secondary school, especially those in the
Educational Program for Specialization in General Studies,
about what they can expect and what is expected of them.
• Being better prepared and learning how to read large
amounts of English course material in an efficient way, is
something I believe would have been very valuable.
At university: Reading/learning strategy
use
• None had been offered reading strategy courses in
higher education- but several were offered writing
courses
• Most seem bewildered by how best to handle and
work with the information in the texts they read
• Arnsby: One if the biggest issues for the respondents
in the qualitative study is figuring out how to read in
an efficient way, and what to do when reading to
remember the information later
Bob- exemplifies the Linguistic Threshold
Hypothesis
• High scores in Norwegian-low score in English
• I find that reading (in English) is slower, it is more slow than
what I am used to, especially skimming a text in English gives
a much poorer understanding of the text compared to
skimming in Norwegian.
• It is difficult to remember the information in the paragraph I
have read regardless because there is so much information in
a small space
• Provides an example of poor English proficiency preventing
the transfer of reading strategies
Summing up
• Clear improvement from 2001 to 2013, but:
• Students still need better preparation to master the
transition to higher education, with regard to
language and terminology, and strategy use
• Students still need to be made “literate”– learn how
to approach a text, knowing why one approaches it
and what to do with it.
• This comprises determining level of understanding,
setting goals, and monitoring comprehension.
• English – how to handle unfamiliar vocabulary
Study no.2- upper secondary level
• 2011
• IELTS Academic
Reading Module (same
as in thesis)
• 467 senior upper
secondary school
students
– 324 EFL only
– 138 with CLIL or IB
Hellekjær, G. O., & Hopfenbeck, T. N.
(2012). Lesing. In B. W. Svenhard
(Ed.), CLIL: Kombinert fag- og
engelskopplæring i videregående
skole (Vol. nr. 28/april 2012, pp. 84124). Halden:
Fremmedspråksenteret.
The upper secondary school samples
Year
2002
2011
Types of English
input
EFL
CLIL
All
EFL
CLIL
International
Baccalaureate
Total
Respondents
178 (82%)
39 (18%)
217 (100%)
324 (69%)
73 (16%)
68 (15%)
465 (100%)
Comparing the samples according
to English courses using Vg1 grades
Comparison of IELTS scores- EFL only
EFL, CLIL, IB - a comparison
But--- CLIL students (2011) with 50% or more
teaching in English score better, Mean IELTS
=28.5, SD = 6.21, N= 43
EFL, CLIL, IB – strategy use
Conclusion and discussion
• There has been an improvement in reading proficiency at
both levels – but we do not know why
• Still, university students still do not feel well prepared by
upper secondary EFL, they need reading strategy courses and
more systematic preparation
• EFL instruction at the upper secondary level also has clear
quality problems, advanced courses have clearly diminishing
returns– to the point of being a waste of time
• Solutions (see Swain 1985, 2001)
– More challenging EFL teaching
– Increased use of CLIL
– Bringing in new content and elements from CLIL in EFL