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European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching ISSN: 2537 - 1754 ISSN-L: 2537 - 1754 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1039405 AN EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST FOR STUDENT MOBILITY Meral Melek Ünver1i Murat Doğan Şahin2, MA, Anadolu Anadolu University, 1 Eskişehir, Turkey PhD, Anadolu Anadolu University, 2 Eskişehir, Turkey Abstract: University education is characterized by the atmosphere and opportunities offered to students to help master new skills, develop existing ones, realize and accept cultural diversity, hence broaden their horizons. Compared to past, students now have numerous alternatives either in the university in their home country or abroad. According to the statistics, 10% of the students graduated from university in the mid1990s had studied abroad for different time periods (Jahr, Schomburg & Teichler, 2002). Undoubtedly, this number has probably increased given the fact that developments in technology have resulted in obvious easiness in communication and transportation. More importantly, there are now student exchange programs like Erasmus+ that help support student mobility. Keywords: effectiveness, language proficiency test, student mobility 1. Introduction Launched in 1987, Erasmus+ is an EU s program which aims to contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy for growth, jobs, social equity and inclusion, and to the aims of ET2020, the EU s strategic framework for education and training (http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/node_en). The statistics show that in 2015, 678,000 people studied, trained or volunteered abroad and there were 69,000 organizations involved in Erasmus+. Through Erasmus+, students have the opportunity Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 158 Meral Melek Ünver, Murat Doğan Şahin, AN EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST FOR STUDENT MOBILITY to pursue their studies in another country in Europe for at least a period of six months, which might be extended to one year, and even do their internship for three months before they graduate from university. Students taking this opportunity are also given a certain amount of grant for their expenses. Research shows that many students like to go abroad through Erasmus+ because of the opportunities to learn about a different culture, benefit from cheap and easy travel overseas and make a change in their CV for their future career (Tekin & Gencer, 2013). Turkey is among the countries where universities and university students benefit from Erasmus+. There are 184 universities in Turkey and as of 2011, 131 of them benefit from Erasmus+ student exchange program. The demand for the program is high, yet it is unlikely to send all the applicants to Europe taking the amount of grant spared for student mobility and the possible quotas agreed by the host universities. This makes the application and admission process a competitive and challenging one with certain requirements, and only the ones meeting them are eligible for the program. These requirements include a minimum GPA of 2,20 and a proof of good language proficiency level. This competitive process brings language assessment as one of the issues to be considered. As language proficiency is essential to survive and pursue their studies abroad, students take language proficiency tests measuring their overall mastery of English language abilities. Taken the diversity of students in terms of their majors and language background, developing and deploying language tests is a challenge itself because studying abroad requires mastery in both productive, i.e. speaking and writing and receptive, i.e. reading and listening, language skills now that students merge into a new community where the medium of communication is English, if not only. This suggests that students should be competent in oral and written skills with correct register in both social and academic contexts. A quick research on the Internet reveals that universities having Erasmus+ student exchange program in Turkey deploy language proficiency tests differing in content and construct. Given the fact that these tests play an important role in making decisions by universities, how language proficiency is tested is of crucial importance. As McNamara 2000 stated, proficiency tests do not aim to assess students success considering the language instruction they have received previously, but look to the future situation of language use. Some universities have candidate students sit a multiple-choice test, in which grammar, vocabulary, reading and translation skill of students are tested, with the inclusion of listening in some other universities. There are some examples of proficiency tests with a writing component, in which candidate students are required to write an essay. There are few incidents of a speaking test given European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2017 159 Meral Melek Ünver, Murat Doğan Şahin, AN EXPLORATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST FOR STUDENT MOBILITY to the students. Also, the number of questions in the multiple-choice test varies as well as the item types used. As Erasmus+ is a Europe-based program, the language proficiency of students is expressed according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), from A1 (the lowest) to C2 (the highest). The language proficiency tests in Turkey also range from A2 to C1 in the language level they are developed. All assessment tools are meant to be valid, reliable and practical (Madsen, 1983; McNamara, 1996). As for the language proficiency tests for student mobility, namely Erasmus+ student exchange program, they seem to heavily rely on multiple-choice discrete item tests, which might stem from the practicality issues due to high number of applicants and low number of raters to test productive skills. In other words, there seems to be that practicality issue plays a major role in decision making when it comes to testing language proficiency, contrary to the fact that students need to be competent in all language skills to survive in both academic and social contexts abroad as mentioned earlier. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejfl/article/view/605 European Journal of Foreign Language Teaching - Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2017 160