Abstract
During a three-year period of co-operation between the English Department and the Institute of Educational Research at the University of Gothenburg, studies have been made with a view to clarifying a definition of the objectives of English language courses and improving methods of teaching and testing English language proficiency at university level. Considerable success was achieved in the construction of a test battery by means of which a reliable and comprehensive measure could be arrived at of students' written and oral proficiency. By the aid of these tests one could also define with a reasonable degree of accuracy the requirements for a normal course of study.
Since the level of proficiency at entrance emerges as the principal determinant of the level exhibited a year later, the author argues that the specification of objectives (for language proficiency) should take account not only of the terminal level but also of the initial level.
Résumé
Au travers d'une coopération de trois ans entre le Département d'anglais et l'Institut de recherche sur l'éducation à l'Université de Gothenburg, ont été réalisées un certain nombre d'études dans le but de clarifier les objectifs des cours de langue anglaise, d'améliorer les méthodes d'enseignement et d'éprouver la compétence dans cette langue au niveau universitaire. On a réussi à mettre au point une série de tests, grâce auxquels on pourrait procéder à une mesure adéquate et sûre de la compétence écrite et orale des étudiants. A l'aide de ces tests on pourrait aussi déterminer avec assez de précision les besoins auxquels devrait répondre un cours normal.
Puisque le niveau de compétence existant au départ parait constituer le déterminant principal du niveau atteint un an plus tard, l'auteur soutient que la spécification des objectifs (pour la compétence dans la langue) devrait prendre en compte non seulement le viveau final mais aussi le niveau initial.
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The autor wishes to thank Professor Alvar Ellegård, Dr. Sigvard Gårdmark, and Dr. David Wright for their most valuable comments.
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Marton, F. The tenth year of English: Review of a project concerning second language learning at university level. High Educ 1, 93–109 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01956883
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01956883