A Comparative Investigation of English Language Proficiency and Academic Performance of Current Undergraduate Students with Special Reference to Generation Z: Rural versus Urban Students

Abstract

Understanding the audience is the key to successful communication. Therefore, an effective teacher has to consider manifold differences among the students in any given classroom: the characteristics of the students, the mind-set of the generation, the variety of learning styles, the students’ needs and goals, and their educational background. Since Aleksandras Stulginskis University (ASU) awards the degrees in food sciences, agriculture, forestry, water and land resources management, bioenergy and mechanical engineering, climate change and sustainable use of natural resources, a sizeable part of the students come to study from rural areas. Recent educational research in the USA, UK and Lithuania have revealed a significant difference in the academic performance of the students from rural and urban areas, however, it is still an unresolved problem for the educational institutions in Lithuania. This area has an insubstantial amount of research documented. Thus, the current research aims at investigating the relationship between the location of the school, a student graduated from, and the results of the English language diagnostic test as well as analysing the academic performance of the Agronomy Faculty students through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th semesters. The study focuses on our current undergraduate students - the always-connected, app-happy, smartphone-dependent, born with the Internet, technology, and social media generation Z. The research methods involve statistical and comparative analyses of the urban and rural student achievements in the English language; the theoretical assumptions based on the documents from the National Examination Centre, the Ministry of Education and Science, The National Centre for Education Statistics, and the Eurydice Network, and the investigation of motivational factors influencing the academic performance of the generation Z students in line with the survey results.[...]