Developing measures of basic job-relevant English proficiency for the prediction of job performance and promotability

The present study is an attempt to devise reliable and valid measures of jo b-relevant basic English proficiency to be applied in the prediction of job performance and promotability in an entry-level manual labor job dominated by workers whose native language is not English. An audio test and a readi ng test were developed to assess the ability to understand spoken English a nd written English respectively using job relevant material. Results showed that both tests demonstrated high predictive validity for the criteria of supervisory assessments of incumbents' English proficiency on the job, over all job performance, and promotability. In predicting ratings of overall jo b performance and promotability, each test provided incremental validity ov er the predictability provided by the other test. In addition, the tests al so provided incremental validity in predicting promotability over the predi ctability provided by overall job performance.