Abstract:

Following the globalisation of businesses and the emergence of the European single market, teaching foreign languages, especially English, at an academic level has entered a new era, as future graduates need to master the terminology of their field of study in order to be prepared to work in multicultural or international environments. This means that the old teaching methods based solely on grammar and vocabulary exercises are no longer sufficient and must be improved and adapted to meet the students’ future linguistic needs. Therefore, in order for the graduates to become autonomous users of English for specific purposes, an emphasis must be laid on the functional use of language. This means that a social and situational dimension should be added to the English class.

Starting from a project on a task-based approach to testing foreign languages in tertiary education, coordinated by the European Center for Modern Languages (2011), this article is aimed at emphasizing the ways in which this new model can be transferred to teaching and assessing English. The target group is represented, in the present case studies, by Bachelor’s degree students from the Faculty of Biology, the University of Bucharest and by Master’s degree students enrolled in the programme The Culture and the Language of European Organizations, at the University of Bucharest. This new student-centered approach puts the learners in real-life situations, similar to those they may encounter in their profession one day. By exposing the students to a wide variety of authentic situations and eliciting natural language production, they are encouraged to focus on meaning exchange rather than linguistic accuracy.

Therefore, the language teachers have the mission to select the most suitable authentic materials for teaching and to construct accurate evaluation grids for both receptive (listening and reading) and productive skills (writing and speaking). In line with the teaching method, the assessment does not check the acquisition of distinct vocabulary and grammar structures, but it tests learners’ ability to accomplish certain given tasks in the target language (English). This new pedagogical approach motivates students more than the traditional methods because, besides functional language proficiency, they develop soft skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving and negotiation skills, which will help them in their future career.

Keywords:

Authentic, integrated skills, accuracy, motivation, communication, scenario, employability.