Participant Exam Read Write Speak Listen Age Gender Language Program Graduated
p1 B1 501 547 529 579 20 M Germ. MBO1 Yes
p2 B1 584 519 546 533 21 M Germ. MBO4 Yes
p3 B2 492 497 548 568 33 F NonGerm. HBO No
p4 B1 546 532 511 541 26 F Germ. MBO3 No
p5 B2 522 597 547 531 18 F NonGerm. WO No
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
p12661 B2 632 618 599 549 44 F NonGerm. WO Yes
p12662 B2 701 569 549 612 20 M NonGerm. MBO4 Yes
p12663 B1 554 514 526 539 29 F NonGerm. MBO2 Yes
p12664 B2 579 538 512 560 26 M Germ. HBO Yes 
Does language proficiency cause study success?
What this research was about and why it is important
This is not unsurprising, given that language is the medium that is used to transmit knowledge, and that reading, writing, listening and speaking are important skills in any educational setting.
The relation between language proficiency and study success has also been observed for students studying in their second language, but is not equally strong for all international students.
It may well depend on the extent to which a study program puts demands on students’ language skills.
Research so far has been conducted primarily with WEIRD participants in university contexts, and has been based on fairly small samples.
The present study addressed these shortcomings by a analyzing a large historical registry dataset, containing information of 12.664 examinees of the L2 Dutch state exam between 2011 and 2023 as well as information about their ensuing study careers.
The goal of this study was to investigate the relation between study success and second language proficiency, as well as to develop procedures to make causal claims on the basis of data that were not experimental in nature.
What the researchers did
We used data of 12.664 examinees of the L2 Dutch state exam from the Dutch Office of Education.
This dataset contained information about the exam examinees took (B1 or B2 levels) and exam scores on four subtests (reading, writing, speaking and listening).
It also contained examinees’ age, gender and language background…
and information about their educational career after taking the exam: At what level they followed tertiary education, and whether they obtained their degree or not.
In this context we distinguish between university (wo), applied university (hbo), professional and middle-management vocational education (mbo 3 and 4) and assistant or basic vocational education (mbo 1 and 2).
These are fake data, in case you were wondering.
With the real dataset in hand, we conducted statistical analyses that focused on the relation between examinees’ exam scores and their chances of obtaining a degree in their study program.
We also ran simulations, to estimate whether language proficiency causes study success.
In these simulations, we mimicked what would happen when each individual examinee would score higher on the exam (in this case 50 additional points on the exam scale).
Would they then be more likely to obtain a degree in their study program?
What the researchers found
For university students (wo), our simulations showed that if they started their studies with higher language proficiencies, they would be more likely to obtain a degree.
In applied university students (hbo), these results were less pronounced.
As was the case for intermediate vocational tracks (mbo 3 and 4)
In the basic vocational tracks (mbo 1 and 2) the results were even opposite: If students in those tracks started their studies with higher language proficiencies, they would be less likely to obtain a degree.
Things to consider
The relation between language proficiency and study success in university students was replicated in this large-scale dataset. This relation should not be generalized to students in applied university or vocational programs, which stresses the importance of using more diverse study populations in future second language acquisition research.
Overqualification might explain why higher language proficiency could lead to lower study success in some vocational tracks: Perhaps more proficient students drop out of their programs because of motivational issues or early job opportunities in a tight labor market.
It is encouraging that dropout rates of international students were similar to dropout rates of domestic students, but, unfortunately, we cannot provide insight into why students did not finish their programs. Many other reasons, not directly related to language proficiency (family, housing, etc.), might lead to students not finishing their program.
Future research could focus more qualitatively on international nonuniversity students to get more insights into how language plays a role in their educational career.
Full paper is available from https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12713
Scripts are available from https://osf.io/aef2d.
How to cite this summary: Spit, S., Andringa, S., Ryan, O. (2025). Does language proficiency cause study success? OASIS Summary of Spit, S., Andringa, S., Ryan, O. (2025) in Language Learning. https://oasis-database.org
This summary has a CC BY-NC-SA license.