Revisiting the writing competencies expected by industries in an exit test

Abstract

The writing component of the Test of English Communication Skills for Graduating Students (UTM-TECS) measures competencies of understanding of task and situation, critical creative thinking, analysis and evaluation of task, choice of lexis, accuracy and clarity of expressions and coherent flow of ideas. Five years into its implementation, a revisit of the requirements was made to reassess the validity of this measurement. The methodology comprises two stages. First, it involved test design, assessment of scripts and sampling of the different levels by the language practitioners as had previously been established. Second, interviews with the workplace professionals from diverse specialisations. The procedure involved showing selected scripts to workplace professionals for them to evaluate the adequacy of the test and to assess the quality of the writing as they deem satisfactory and acceptable in their work settings. Interviews were then conducted after the evaluation session to elicit the workplace professionals’ views and expectations of writing competencies in their respective organisation. Qualitative analysis of the data revealed adequacy of the test but recommendation were used to re-design the UTM-TECS Test of Writing to meet the new expectation of the workplace professionals.