From Prep Class to First Year: An Investigation into the Transitional Effects of a One-year English Preparatory Continuum on Language Proficiency and University Adjustment

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the transitional effects of a one-year English preparatory continuum on language proficiency and university adjustment. To this end, the study was carried out with 150 first-year ELT students in total as two separate participant groups. One of the groups consisted of 75 students who had already attended preparatory class in the academic year of 2008-2009 and then made a transition to the freshman year. The remaining 75 participants comprised the students who were exempted from the preparatory class and therefore directly admitted to the first-year.The data were collected through the Language Proficiency Questionnaire, the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaires were administered both at the beginning and end of the academic year as pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire. The quantitative data gathered from questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS computer program and the analysis of the qualitative data obtained via interviews was realized utilizing content analysis procedure.The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference between the students who took preparatory education in the previous year and the others that were exempted from it in terms of language proficiency. On the other hand, it was found that these two types of students statistically differed from each other with respect to university adjustment.Keywords: Transition, Preparatory Program, First-Year Students, Language Proficiency, University Adjustment.