Globalization led to an increase in the linguistic diversity of students in higher education, including domestic language minority speakers (LMS). We will look at the predictive value of academic language proficiency of LMS in relation to other demographic and educational background factors and consider policy implications.
Globalization and migration led to an increase in the linguistic diversity of students in higher education. In Flanders the absence of entry requirements in universities, except for Medicine, has led to a massification of enrollment, including language minority speakers (LMS) (Glorieux, Laurijsen & Sobczyk, 2014). Flemish high school students, also comprising LMS, are assumed to have an adequate language proficiency to start university, but LMS tend to underachieve as opposed to their monolingual peers (Lacante et al., 2001). While language proficiency of LMS is often considered a cause of underachievement, a complex set of interrelated factors related to socioeconomic status (SES) is more likely to be responsible (Cummins, 2017). We will look at the predictive value of academic language proficiency (ALP) in monolingual native speakers and LMS controlled for the influence of migration background, age, SES, gender, pre-university educational track and average high school score. A digital academic language screening test, developed at KU Leuven is our measure of ALP. In a sample of over 10,000 students entering from Flemish secondary education, having a different home language increases the risk of not succeeding in the first year, but that risk is also related to migration background, SES and prior educational attainments. The risk associated with LMS reduces slightly when controlling for ALP. Moreover, leaving ALP out of the final model, including other background factors, increases the risk of not succeeding for students with a different home language or a migration background, but also for students with a lower SES or from certain educational tracks. From a policy perspective, it seems that academic language support, although it has limited impact on achievement, can be beneficial for all students with vulnerable demographic and educational background characteristics.
