Seven new dissemination sites are being added during the third year of the project. These are predominantly postsecondary institutions that need better methods for addressing the language needs of underprepared students. Students receive a profile of their language skills on the test and this helps them to identify specific areas in which they need to improve. Staff have found that students underprepared in academic language come from a variety of backgrounds, and include native speakers of English. In a sense, academic language is a second language that must be taught and learned in order for students to comprehend college lectures, textbooks and tests.
Academic language correlates with college grades.
At one postsecondary site, students who passed an introductory science course had significantly higher academic-language skills than did those who received D or F grades in the course. Students who persisted in the course had significantly higher academic-language scores than those who dropped the course during the semester. Thus, academic language is associated with academic success and persistence in college.