| Author(s) | Saif Al-Ansari* and Mohammed Al Qaddumi** |
| Affiliation | Associate Professor, and **Assistant Professor Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, College of Arts, University of Bahrain, Bahrain |
| Title | Components of the First Certificate Test (FCE) and Their Prediction of Academic Success for English Majors at the University of Bahrain |
| Source | Journal of King Saud University. Languages & Translation. Volume 17, No 1. (2005/1425) |
| Abstract | The purpose of this study is to examine the multivariate relationships of students’ proficiency scores on the First Certificate of English (FCE), together with their performance at the university as measured by the overall gradepoint average (GPA). The subjects for the study were 106 students enrolled at the University of Bahrain. The bivariate analysis of the data showed that the students’ scores on the test correlated very significantly with all the variables tested. Regression analysis revealed that the cloze and word formation contributed more significantly to the total test score for the whole sample. As for the overall GPA, word formation proved to be the best predictor. However, analysis for the high achievers revealed different results. Here mainly sentence transformation and to some extent the cloze contributed enough to be maintained in the linear prediction model. Contrary to expectations, both the composition and the oral test contributed to the prediction of the high achievers’ GPA. As for the low achievers, mainly their score on the multiple-choice and the cloze contributed more significantly to the total FCE score. Their score on the word formation and sentence transformation appeared to contribute to their overall GPA. We first discuss the background and purpose of the present study and then present an analysis and discussion of the statistical findings. We conclude by considering the pedagogical implications of the findings for different categories of learners. |
