The evaluation of monolingual admissions test used for admission to higher education in a plurilingual context

This study aims to critically evaluate the practice to use monolingual admissions tests across diverse language groups. The specific aim of the study was, accordingly, to evaluate the bias, across language groups, of a reading comprehension test used for admission to higher education. The subsequent aim was to decide about the scalar equivalence of the test across three language groups, namely Afrikaans and English students and students who are first language speakers of an African language. Item bias and structural differences between the English first and English second language groups were found, while structural differences continued to be found after deleting the DIF items from the test. Implications for fair admissions testing in the South African context are discussed.