English Requirements at Universities: Have We Missed the Point?

LINUS NEKONDOTHERE ARE two categories of pupils when Grade 12 results are released: Category A – those who obtain a D, or better, symbol in English; and Category B – those who do not.

Category A pupils have the potential to gain admission to higher education institutions (HEI) depending on whether they attain 25 points and above in five subjects. Category B pupils, however, do not have such a possibility even if they score 25 points and above in five subjects.

There are many reasons why pupils can perform well in subjects taught and assessed in English but perform poorly in English as a subject. These include their English teachers’ pedagogic content knowledge and assessment practices, a lack of English teaching and learning resources, as well as pupils’ love or fear of English as a subject.

Having HEI admission pegged to English performance needs reconsideration in the face of this plurality of Englishes. There are as many Englishes as there are contexts in which the language is used. In the context of formal schooling (Grade 0 – 12), there are two main Englishes: English as a Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) and English as a subject. The two are distinct in the sense that:

• English as a LoLT refers to the language of teaching and learning used in classrooms for a range of subjects. English as a LoLT is not assessed and yet has an enormous bearing on a pupil’s success in physics, history and so on. Success in school subjects largely relies on the ability to read and understand texts, questions and instructions, as well as being able to write in a meaningful way on subjects taught and assessed in English. A Grade 12 pupil well versed in English as the LoLT has the potential to pass four content subjects offered in English as a LoLT, e.g. biology, physical science, mathematics and agriculture, entrepreneurship, business studies, history, development studies, geography, etc.

• English as a subject is one of the two languages each pupil is required to study, and one of the six subjects pupils study in Grade 12. In Namibia, English as a subject is mostly offered as a second language with a subject code 4116. In English (4116) pupils are assessed on their general reading and writing (Paper 1/2), listening comprehension (Paper 3), and speaking (Paper 4). A pupil is awarded a grade based on their performance and that grade counts towards the overall points obtained across six subjects.

Of the two Englishes, it is worth highlighting that it is English as a subject which is given an elevated position for university admission. This, however, begs the following questions: Does a pupil’s inability to pass Grade 12 English mean they do not know English if they succeed in other subjects taught in English? And, is performance in Grade 12 English a predictor of a pupil’s success at university?

Pegging admission to performance in English risks creating the false impression that those who passed English as a subject are able to cope with the demands of university and those who did not, cannot. 

However, university throughput and retention statistics indicate that many students (particularly first years) find themselves at a loss because of their inability to cope with the demands of their new environment. They fail to read and critique texts in the ways expected of them, they battle to write in academically appropriate ways, and they generally struggle with literacy practices despite having met the minimum English requirements.

In an attempt to bridge the gap between formal schooling and university, many HEIs have put in place academic literacy courses. Known by many names such as English for Academic Purposes, Academic Writing, and English for Specific Purposes (to mention a few), such courses are aimed at familiarising new students with the conventions of reading and writing.

Such courses are often compulsory regardless of a student’s performance in Grade 12 English or whether one did English as a first or second language. This alone raises questions about the notion of linking admission to English performance, and concretises the notion that academic literacy is no one’s mother tongue.

Passing Grade 12 English may well be a strong indicator for success in language-focused courses such as language teaching, media and communication, or linguistics, but whether or not it correlates to success in physics, philosophy or any other university subject is an untested assumption. 

Research suggests that a basic competence in the medium of instruction is essential to higher education success; grammatical awareness of the language is not. There is, thus, an urgent need to revisit the English admission requirements if we are to do justice to students.

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