Abstract:

Within the European Union (EU), the language skills of citizens have become one of the challenges of language policies. In recent decades, the EU has launched a range of initiatives to promote the teaching and learning of foreign languages (FL). It stresses the importance for every citizen to have an independent user level in at least two FL in order to increase their opportunities for education, mobility and employment. In this context, the acquisition of acceptable FL skills by the European citizens is crucial and the adequate training of FL teachers (FLT) emerged as a key factor to fulfill this aim.

In this regard, researchers suggested that a high command of the target language is essential for FLT to teach their students to become linguistically competent themselves, being especially important for non-native FLT. Surprisingly, the proficiency level of FLT is often assumed or taken for granted, even though it is not clear whether the majority of these teachers have the necessary language skills to transfer them to enable secondary, undergraduate and/or postgraduate students to master the target language.

The aim of this study was to assess the language proficiency of French as a FL (FFL) of Spanish pre-service FLT (P-FLT) enrolled in a Postgraduate Teacher Education Program. This study was performed with all the P-FLT (n=45) enrolled in the Master's degree in Teacher Training for Compulsory and Upper Secondary Education, Vocational Education and Training and Language Teaching, with a specialization in FFL at the University of Granada (Spain). FFL level was assessed with a self-assessment test and ©DIALANG. Furthermore, their writing skills were quantitatively evaluated.

This study shows in a quantitative and qualitative approach that there are still problems in the teacher training of future FL teachers who do not reach the required or expected FL level. This information could serve as a basis for future professionals to become aware of their language proficiency and to adopt more efficient language system education programs. From a methodological point of view, the methods used here could be applied to determine the level and/or its progression of any other language at (under)graduate and postgraduate levels. Furthermore, ©DIALANG could be a useful tool to objectively determine the language level of a large number of participants at the same time in a university and professional context.

In conclusion, this study demonstrated that these P-FLT still encounter problems with the acquisition of a proficient user level (C1-C2) and specifically with writing. This should be of concern since it can affect the quality of their professional performance. Therefore, it could be necessary to incorporate level tests during university studies and, novel effective didactic strategies should be developed. The outcomes of this study could have significant implications for other pre-service FL teacher training programs in other contexts, aiming to assess and to enhance FL proficiency as part of the teacher training.

Keywords:

French as a foreign language, pre-service teachers, assessment, DIALANG, writing errors.