Language proficiency is a key driver of immigrant integration. It increases job opportunities and facilitates social and political participation. However, despite its vital importance, many immigrants never reach adequate proficiency in the host country language. Therefore, insights into the underlying processes and associated factors are crucial for designing measures to improve language acquisition. Empirical evidence shows that immigrants differ in their ability to learn languages, in their experience of everyday language usage, and their incentives to learn host country languages. This offers a range of opportunities for public policy intervention.
The present study has tried to probe the relationship between English language proficiency and the use of language learning strategies. The 450 participants, who were MA English final year/semester students, were taken from 6 different universities of the two provinces (Punjab and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa) of Pakistan. The 50 item Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was delivered to all the available and willing students in the class. The data obtained from SILL was analyzed via SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) by calculating the mean values for the three proficiency levels (low, medium and high proficiency). The data analysis revealed that there is a strong relationship between English language proficiency and the use of language learning strategies.
In this study, the hypothesis that working memory capacity interacts with (foreign) language proficiency was tested on multilinguals, who were native (L1) Dutch speakers, were fluent in their second (L2) language, German, and had recently started the acquisition of their third (L3) language, Norwegian. So far, the results of second-language studies on simple and complex working-memory tasks are mixed. In previous second-language studies, however, languages that belong to different linguistic groups were used. The question arises whether the interaction between working memory capacity and language proficiency is language-specific. In our multilingualism study we, therefore, controlled for this. Both simple (digit-span) and complex working-memory tasks (reading-span task and letter-number ordering) were used. The general results show that differences in performance between L1, L2, and L3 can be found on both simple and complex working-memory tasks, supporting the working memory capacity interaction hypothesis.
Based on and synthesizing recent advances in both psychometric procedures and communicatively oriented linguistic analysis, a theoretical framework for describing factors affecting performance on foreign/second language tests is presented. Included within this framework are both test method factors—such as the testing environment, the nature of the instructions to the examinee, and the stimulus and response modalities represented in the test—and linguistic factors, including the examinee's organizational and pragmatic competence, strategic competence, and psychophysiological skills involved in the proper reception or production of the test language. Implications of the framework for the development and validation of communicative language proficiency tests are discussed and an action plan is suggested, including further refinement of the theoretical framework; development of large-scale, highly authentic criterion measures operationalizing each of the framework factors; and subsequent validation of both existing and to-be-developed practically oriented communicative proficiency tests against the criterion measures. Establishment of a working group of interested individuals from several institutions and disciplinary areas is proposed as an appropriate administrative vehicle for these activities.
This paper aims at questioning the rationale for language testing in immigration policies. Although we consider knowledge of the host country's language(s) useful and desirable for both the migrant and the host society, we argue that mandatory language testing cannot be justified. Our purpose is to offer justifications for rejecting language as a legitimate tool for controlling state borders and to regulate (access to) citizenship of a liberal democracy.
This paper aims at questioning the rationale for language testing in immigration policies. Although we consider knowledge of the host country's language(s) useful and desirable for both the migrant and the host society, we argue that mandatory language testing cannot be justified. Our purpose is to offer justifications for rejecting language as a legitimate tool for controlling state borders and to regulate (access to) citizenship of a liberal democracy.
This paper analyses the impact of Spanish proficiency on first generation immigrants' employment outcomes, based on the Spanish Labour Force Survey 2014 ad hoc module on "labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants". Proficiency in Spanish enhances immigrants' employability, particularly for immigrants from non-Spanish-speaking countries, as well as on occupation prestige, measured via ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index). This latter result is often less clear because of occupational segregation in the Spanish labour market amongst workers from different regions of the world, but it turns significant when endogeneity in language skills is taken into account via simultaneous equation models.
