Paper presented at BAAL Annual Conference, 12th September 2008, Swansea
Contacts: P.Rea-Dickins@bris.ac.uk; zuleikham2002@yahoo.com
Examination underachievement: is there a language factor?
Pauline Rea-Dickins, Guoxing Yu, Oksana Aftiska, University of Bristol
Zuleikha Khamis, State University of Zanzibar
This Presentation
 overview of research context and issues
 overview of study and research aims
 some data and findings
 discussion and some conclusions
Context of Learning
Khadija is 15 years old and in Form 2 of secondary school. Her learning in primary school was
entirely through the medium of Kiswahili, with English taught as a subject. She experienced an abrupt
shift from Kiswahili as medium of instruction on transition to secondary school as in Form 1 she was
expected to learn all her subjects through English. However, in reality both her L1 (Kiswhahili) and
L2 (English) were used when she was being taught Maths, Science, Geography and her other subjects.
But, at the end of Form 2 she is required to demonstrate her subject learning in formal school
examinations through the medium of English.
***********************************************************************************
Typical Examination Questions and Formats
*ENGLISH (RC):
Give out short, clear and meaningful answers:
3. What are the four things that man could resemble whales?
*MATHS:
2. Given that a² – b² = (a+b) (a -b). Evaluate (204)² – (196)² (learners given 6 lines for their answer)
8. Find each of the following quotients leaving your answers in standard form
a)
7 X 104
= ________________________________ (learners are given 2 lines for their answer)
28 X 102
6. The combined ages of Juma and Asha are 10 years. The difference of Asha’s age from twice Juma’s
age is 8 years. Find the ages of each one.
(learners given 9 lines for their answer)
*BIOLOGY:
1. The following are matching items. Match the statement in List A with the correct one in List B.
Write its number against the space provided.
List A
List B
i)
________ Glass of orange juice
1. Potometer
ii)
________ Top halves of the heart
2. Diarhoea and vomiting
iii) ________ Salmonella
3. Hydrometer
iv) ________ Depends on one another
4. Eukaryotes
v)
________ Does not secrete digestive juice
5. Sweat and urine
vi) ________ Measure the rate of water loss in plants
6. Salivary glands
vii) ________ Carries blood from main aorta to the kidney
7. Villus
viii) ________ Organism with no nuclei
8. Atriums
ix) ________ Human wastes
9. Oesophagus
x)
________ Digest and absorbs food
10. Ventricles
11. Prevents Scurvy
12. Renal artery
13. Prokaryotes
14. Refreshes the body
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Paper presented at BAAL Annual Conference, 12th September 2008, Swansea
Contacts: P.Rea-Dickins@bris.ac.uk; zuleikham2002@yahoo.com
15. Renal vein
16. Ileum
17. Parasites
18. Symbionts
5. Draw a well labelled diagram of an anterior view of a thoracic vertebrae
*CHEMISTRY:
5. Explain the complete meaning of the following
a) 2 H2SO4__________________________________________________________________
b) 5 CuCl2__________________________________________________________________
c) S8_______________________________________________________________________
(learners are given three lines for their answers to each item)
**********************************************************************************
Data and Findings (data from Study 5.1)
Linguistic findings affecting performance: examples
 Lexical knowledge: not understanding individual words or phrases, assigning wrong meaning to
words
 Pronunciation effects
 Examination formats and question types
 Choice of language for exams
 Processing examination rubrics
Non-linguistics factors affecting performance: examples
 Topics not covered in class or insufficient practice
 Lack of resources, e.g. books or equipment for science lessons
 Work in the home environment
(i) Words underlined as unknown
Learner E4:
RESEMBLE, BALEEN WHALES, TOOTHED, PLANKTON, VAST SHOALS, SQUID, CHASE,
DEEPER, TREASURE, TOMB, VALUABLE, PERHAPS, COLLAR, ARRANGEMENT, MEANS OF
GETTING (from English test paper)
DILUTE, CONCENTRATED (from Chemistry test paper)
RADIUS (from Biology test paper)
Learner D1:
RESEMBLE, BALEEN WHALES, TOOTHED WHALES, MEANS OF GETTING TO THE STATION
(from English paper), EVALUATE (from Maths paper)

D1: did not answer English Qn 3: “Because I did not understand this question” (line 11)
With reference to RESEMBLE: “I do not understand by this this one … resemble” (l15-117)
Int: If I tell you that resemble means ‘to look like’ … can you do the question now?
LD1
Yes
Int
OK so what’s the answer?
LD1
Man … Is warm-blooded … and whales also … Whales have lungs and man also
have lungs” (D1:122-133)

When learners do not know the meaning of the words in the task or question they may:
–
–

guess the meaning of the word and carry on with the task
or not attempt at the task at all as the meaning of the word is not clear (LD1: Maths Question
6, Word Problem)
Biology Question 1 above: matching phrase “a glass of juice” with “refreshes the body”
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Paper presented at BAAL Annual Conference, 12th September 2008, Swansea
Contacts: P.Rea-Dickins@bris.ac.uk; zuleikham2002@yahoo.com
Int: How did you come to decide that item 14 - A GLASS OF JUICE is the correct matching /
answer to no. 1?
LE4: Yes, when we learned about nutrition. Our teacher he told us juice refresh body.( 60,62)
Int: And why not eleven? What does eleven say?
LE4: (Silent)
Int: PREVENTS SCURVY.
LE4 : I have no sure of this ( 72)
ii) Assigning wrong meaning/mispronunciation
Learners may misread the words and therefore interpret their meaning based on what they have read
e.g.
 Maths Question 8 above : quotient
“I understand quantities like length measure of quantity I know measures of quantity like length
volume” (LE4:418)

LE4: pronounces “skeleton” as “sekelton”. Are learners able to interpret (e.g. “skeleton” as
“skeleton” when readings the exam papers or will such words identified as unfamiliar as in
“sekelton” (LE4: 330); “collar” as “colour” and interpreted as “colour” (LE4: 898-903)

Biology Question 5 above: thoracic vertebrae
Int:
Can you tell us what you were expected to do in this question?….. What does the word
THORACIC mean?
LE4: I think it was in topic of sekelton
Int:
What topic ? sorry
LE4: sekelton. Topic of sekelton the teacher told me….but I do not understand
Int: …What did you try to draw?
LE4: I tried just to draw to draw hand (328,330.336) – ( the learner actually drew a picture of an
elbow which he/she meant to be a hand)
(iii) Exam formats & question types:
 Biology Question 1 above:
Int: …. So when you saw this type of question- A GLASS OF ORANGE JUICE what did you have in
mind, what were you actually asked for here?
LA5 :
In my mind I think something got is explained if somebody have a stomach pain so or have a
diarrohea and vomiting so must be give it the something a water and….. salt one spoon of
salt and five spoon of ……( silent)
Int:
Sugar
LA5:
Sugar so in my opinion I was think it is the same so that I will choose it the number two
because it has DIARRHOEA AND VOMITING.
(iv) Choice of language
Exams in English
“Yeah it test one knowledge to how our knowledge improve example in English so these exams in
English to give us to improve more and more [because] all of our examination or say most of them are
in English so it improve our knowledge … [whether to be examined in English or Kiswhaili] In my
opinion maybe on in English because the all I can example place … so they are forms writing in
English so if you not … know well English you can’t write anything in that form so this paper or this
exam give us chance to be able to know how can ask question and how can you explain how can you
answer the question” (LA5:207-209)
“Yes but if it better if the exam come to English than Kiswahili” (LE4:486)
(v) Processing examination rubrics
unfamiliar words, format/layout, unfamiliarity with the question type
Biology Question 1 above: Matching items
A target learner in school B (data in transcribing process) was unable to match the items according to
numbers as instructed in the rubrics and instead opted for letters a, b. c. etc. When asked Why he/ she
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Paper presented at BAAL Annual Conference, 12th September 2008, Swansea
Contacts: P.Rea-Dickins@bris.ac.uk; zuleikham2002@yahoo.com
chose to do that he/she responded that that is how they do that kind of task in the classroom with their
teacher.
Biology Question 6 above:
LE4: Yeah when when I when I read this I saw this is (silent)
Int: difficult?
LE4: Was difficult to answer so IInt: Did you read any more here or just the word RADIUS?
LE4: No no no
Int: No so you just read the word RADIUS and you did not know what it meant.
LE4: Yes.
Some Conclusions
Yes there IS a language factor:
(i) SS inadequately prepared for examinations (data from Study 4):
 Lack of exposure to rich language models
 Little opportunity to: exchange meanings, develop skills of reasoning, explanation, justify = lack
of practice in ‘learning talk’ and exposure to genre for learning …
 Yet: exams require learners to explain (sequential or causal explanations), argue, organise
information through describing, discussing, evaluation …
 Some (but little overall) evidence of a language focus in the subject classes & of a cross-curricula
focus in the English classes: lack of opportunities for language development
(ii) The examinations themselves in English pose difficulties to the learners (data from Study 5.1)
(iii) There are other crucial mediating factors e.g. (data from Study 4):
 Teachers struggle in their use of the L2 and cannot provide the rich and varied linguistic
environments for the development of subject learning and L2 abilities as preparation for the formal
high stakes examinations at end of Form 2
 Lack of resources (e.g. graph paper is drawn on the BB; no periodic tables for Chemistry)
 Teacher Certification: many Form 2 teachers are Form 4 school leavers
Is language THE factor in examination underachievement??
Note:
This research is funded by ESRC/DfID (Grant RES-167-25-0263). The research team members also
include Haji Mwevura, Abdulla Hemed Mohammed, Shumbana Said, Amour Khamis, State University
of Zanzibar; Rosamund Sutherland, Harvey Goldstein, Sibel Erduran, University of Bristol.
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