Pirmosios studijų pakopos studentų bendrosios anglų kalbos pasiekimai
First-Cycle Students‘ Achievements in General English

Summary/Abstract: European education and foreign language policy documents emphasise the significance of special foreign language competence in the context of lifelong learning; however, the main focus, especially in Lithuanian education and foreign language policy documents, is given to foreign language teaching in early, primary and secondary education, while foreign language competence development in higher education is given little or no attention. Students enter higher education with comparatively low and different foreign language competence that neither corresponds to the requirements stated in general education programmes nor meets the requirements of high-quality higher education studies. Therefore, further development of foreign language competence in higher education is becoming an inevitable part of lifelong learning. An empirical study was carried out to identify and evaluate the first-cycle graduate students’ foreign language competence and to assess its compliance with the higher education graduates’ status as concerns foreign language competence, i.e. to find out the level of the first- cycle graduates’ foreign language competence, whether it meets, and if so, to what extent, higher school graduate status in terms of linguistic competence. The object of research was foreign language competence of the first-cycle students who completed compulsory general English Level 4 (B2) course at a higher education institution. The sample of the empirical research was 578. Testing was employed as the method of the empirical research. The results revealed that in general having acquired foreign language competence at Level B2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2001), the first-cycle students are capable of functioning in the international socio-cultural sphere; however, they still lack skills necessary for the status of a higher education graduate as regards their foreign language competence. The results also revealed that it is necessary to pay more attention to the development of such language activities as writing and listening that are especially important for higher education students and academic and professional activities, and to further maintain the competences of such language activities as reading and speaking. Following the research results, students’ general foreign language competence is developed insufficiently as regards separate foreign language activities at Level B2 according to CEFR; therefore, it is recommended to modernise the system of foreign language competence development at a higher education institution. The fact that foreign language competences of the first-cycle students in terms of language activities are very different also renders the assumptions for modernisation. It is also recommended to develop subject study programmes with regard to the student needs for the development of the foreign language competence on the basis of separate language activities.

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