An Investigation of the Predictive Validity of ELT Improvement Courses’ Exams in an ELT Undergraduate Program

This study was designed to investigate the predictive validity of the exams of the English language improvement courses in the undergraduate program as well as the relationship between the scores of these exams. A quantitative methodology was used in this study. The study was conducted at the Foreign Language Education Department (FLE) of the Faculty of Education at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU). The Data was analyzed using quantitative statistics and presented using tables. The mid-term and final exam scores of 1716 students in the academic years 2013-2018 of FLE, and their final grades in the English improvement courses were correlated. The results of this study revealed that the bulk of the exams in the improvement courses have strong predictive validity. Moreover, the strong correlations between the exam scores revealed that the exams scores could predict the performance of the students in future exams and tests, and that the majority of these scores represent a real performance of the students. The outcomes revealed that there is positive relationship between the scores of mid-term and the final exam scores; it also proved that the relationship between the final exams scores and the total grades in those courses is strong and positive. Keywords: Predictive Validity, English Language Teaching, Undergraduate, Exams, Improvement Courses