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Students’ increasing use of text messaging language has prompted concern that textisms (e.g., 2 for to, dont for don’t, ☺) will intrude into their formal written work. Eighty-six Australian and 150 Canadian undergraduates were asked to rate the appropriateness of textism use in various situations. Students distinguished between the appropriateness of using textisms in different writing modalities and to different recipients, rating textism use as inappropriate in formal exams and assignments, but appropriate in text messages, online chat and emails with friends and siblings. In a second study, we checked the examination papers of a separate sample of 153 Australian undergraduates for the presence of textisms. Only a negligible number were found. We conclude that, overall, university students recognise the different requirements of different recipients and modalities when considering textism use and that students are able to avoid textism use in exams despite media reports to the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The papers in this special issue provide support for continued scrutiny of interactional competence (IC) as an important component of the speaking construct. The contributions underscore the complex nature of IC and remind us of the multiple factors that affect any construct definition. At the same time, each study offers insights into those factors through their explorations of IC. In this final paper, we first briefly review key findings from the papers that confirm what is already known about IC and that provide new information to our understanding of the construct of IC. After summarizing points of convergence and of divergence, we turn to a discussion of areas that require additional targeted attention and offer four generalizations as starting points for research. In the final section, we take a critical look at the challenges associated with including IC in the speaking construct and the implications of the studies in this special issue for the relationship between IC and proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify what aviation experts consider to be the key features of effective communication by examining in detail their commentary on a 17-minute segment of recorded radiotelephony discourse between a Russian pilot and a Korean air traffic controller. The segment was played to three practising pilots and three air traffic controllers. Their commentary on the qualities of communication displayed in the interaction was recorded and coded thematically, using a grounded ethnography approach. The analysis revealed that although the Russian pilot was viewed as having limited English proficiency, the strategies he used to make himself understood were evaluated positively as fulfilling the requirements of the professional role. By contrast, the Korean air traffic controller, although not evaluated as having limited proficiency, was criticized for his lack of professional knowledge. The discourse analysis and the feedback given by these expert informants highlight not only the nature of the miscommunication arising in unexpected situations, but also the multiple factors that may contribute to it. While language proficiency is clearly an issue, there are many other sources of miscommunication that emerge during the exchange. These findings are used to critique the narrow, language-focused oral proficiency construct as articulated in the holistic descriptors and the rating scale stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, 2010) as the basis for tests of aviation English worldwide. Instead the paper proposes an expanded construct of oral communication incorporating elements of professional knowledge and behaviour with a focus on interactional competence specific to this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the assessment of speaking, a psycholinguistically based speaking construct has predominated. In this paper, we argue for the integration of the construct of interactional competence (IC) in speaking assessments to broaden the range of defensible inferences from speaking tests. IC emphasizes the co-constructed nature of interaction and enables the rating of L2 users' ability to deploy interactional tools that lead to shared understandings. Recent work on IC shows that levels of development can be distinguished, for example, in the sequential organization of social actions such as requests and refusals. This can in turn inform interactionally specific ratings. Furthermore, an IC perspective allows a fine-grained analysis of interactions between examiners and test takers to detect effects of examiner talk. Apparent misunderstandings or disfluencies by test takers can be examiner-induced with the test taker's response actually demonstrating interactional ability rather than lack of proficiency. We argue that inclusion of IC as a construct in testing speaking opens new perspectives on oral proficiency and enhances the validity of speaking assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, several countries have attempted to encourage life-long learning and to widen university accessibility to include a wider mix of students. In Australia, numerous new pathways with the Vocational Education and Training sector have been established for these purposes. This study reports on the effects that two variables, gender and age, had on the university academic performance of students who had taken a Vocational Education and Training pathway to an Australian university using whole cohort data (n = 542) for Vocational Education and Training pathway students enrolled between 2005 and 2012; two-way between-group analyses of variance were conducted to assess the effects of both gender and age on undergraduate academic achievement. Age and gender were both related to students' academic performance, with higher performance among female students and groups of older students. There were also differences in the effects that gender had on academic performance depending upon age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a detailed analysis of individual preferences towards public financial aid to students from low-income families. Who favours/opposes such aid? What are the determinants of the respective preferences? I argue that three sets of factors jointly shape these preferences: materialistic self-interests, political attitudes, and the status quo of the higher education subsidy systems by generating positive feedback-effects. Results of multilevel ordered logit models utilizing the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data for up to 22 countries over two decades indicate that self-interest matters: students strongly favour subsidies as do their parents, while those paying for the spending and those not expecting to benefit oppose such aid. Moreover, political attitudes are important: Supporters of redistribution and of increased public education spending in general, as well as leftwing voters, are much more likely to support students. On the macro-level, the findings suggest that positive feedback-effects exist: in countries with generous subsidy systems, public support for subsidies is higher. This article is the first to systematically analyse preferences towards higher education subsidies across countries and time and demonstrates how positive feedback-effects increasingly lock-in countries’ tuition-subsidy paths, making the systems resistant to (radical) change. As such, it speaks to the literature on the political economy of skill formation, the welfare state, public opinion and the public opinion–policy link. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tests measuring academic language are traditionally associated with visible, high-stakes decisions of whether or not English language learners are admitted to post-secondary institutions. However, a new form of assessment in higher education is now gaining prominence. Post-entry (or post-enrolment) language assessments (PELA) determine the academic language learning needs of students once they are accepted into a post-secondary institution (Dunworth, 2009; Murray, 2010; Read, 2013). Rather than simply making a summative, evaluative judgment about student ability upon admission, post-entry assessments are designed to specify the level and type of language support required. This use of results is in line with formative and assessment for learning approaches for the use of assessment data (Black & William, 1998; Hill & McNamara, 2012; Rea-Dickins, 2008). This review of the Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment (DELNA) program reflects increased interest in assessments focused on supporting student learning. In this review, I refer to the DELNA program as it is implemented within the University of Auckland, New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young Australians are increasingly combining study with work. Research and media reports frequently reveal that young Australian workers know little about their employment rights, placing them in a poor bargaining position and exposing them to the risk of exploitation. This study, using data from a survey of 1200 Australian university students, finds that students with experience in the labour market are more knowledgeable about their current employment arrangements and more confident about entering the graduate labour market once they finish their studies, reporting higher expectations of job security and being able to negotiate pay. Students also seem aware of segments in the graduate labour market, with confidence also varying by field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]