Abstract
A report by the Office for Students (2021) into assessment practices relating to language proficiency sets out its expectation that students’ written English should not be ignored in assessment, with standard English assumed to be the benchmark against which proficiency is measured. At the same time, the number of international students at the university is rising markedly for certain degree programmes, posing significant challenges for academic staff. English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research argues that as the process of internationalisation gathers pace in higher education, an insistence on native speaker language norms may not be justified. This study takes place in a modern university in northwest England and explores the marking practices of lecturers on a masters in research engineering programme. Using a mixed methods approach that prioritises qualitative data, the study uses comments from assessors from interviews and analysis of written assignments by international students, to explore the role of English language proficiency in the process of standardised marking.
The findings show that there is a discrepancy between assessment policy and stipulations by the Office for students, and the marking practices of assessors. Despite their stated commitment to standard English, in reality the grading of written assessments is a much more pragmatic exercise with the local culture of the discipline informing an unofficial language policy that allows accommodation of non-standard English with limited impact on overall grades. These practices raise the concern that there could be a lack of consistency, equity and transparency in assessment practices across the institution. The study concludes that higher education institutions should put in place clearer language policies that are more easily understood and implemented by their assessors.