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Date Posted: 11:44:42 05/07/07 Mon
Author: Dina Costa
Subject: Peer Editing to Rodrigo Isaac - Dina Costa

Proficiency in English as a Second Language

By Rodrigo Isaac Lucas da Silva e Souza

In this essay, I will discourse (W.W.) about the concept of proficiency mainly taking in debate this notion(P, )when we are dealing with English as an International Language. At first, we must inquire ourselves (non-native speakers of English) what is really be proficient in English and what is necessary to achieve this complex goal? Another useful question is: Is an (W.W. a) unique model of proficiency in SLA adaptable to various L1 speakers? These points are extremely controversial in Applied Linguistics and in some sense, (P ;) I pretend to analyze these issues in this text.

Before starting to discuss the pointed issues, we must assume that proficiency is hugely different from competence (P ,) but sometimes these concepts are mixed and even proficiency has a set of conceptions to indicate this feature accordingly (W.W.) to some scholars. It is not a lie to affirm that there has not been a fully certified and robust description of proficiency and competence yet.

Accordingly to North (2000) one may possible feel misunderstanding regarding the whole concept of "proficiency, proficiency-based teaching, and proficiency testing"; and for some (missing prep. OF? Or erase the article) the notions of competence and language proficiency are used in an "interchangeable manner". Probably is a desire of applied linguists to develop a unitary "proficiency theory in clear categories with unambiguous relations is understandable." Another significant point is the "communicative competence" concept which is concerned with how to communicate in cross-cultural situations (Richards, 2002).

Communicative Language Approach came to substitute Audiolingualism, which was based on repetition drills. Surely we know that a Communicative Approach is much more productive than drills, but sometimes we need to use it (W.W.), mainly to enhance our phonological English acquisition in a proper way. We should use correctly (W.W. or change to “drills correctly”) drills to get proficiency in some complex words and phrases. When I said complex (P,) it means constructions that are different of our Mother Tongue (P,) and the processes of Language Transfer is (W.W.) practically impossible to be avoid in the beginning of learning a second language. In my opinion (P ,) the students should merge what is useful and easily (W.W.) to him (W.W.) to acquire a new language and sometimes the old techniques of Audiolingualism has (W.W) these properties.

Nowadays we have a lot of proficiency certificates and tests like for example TOIC, TOEFL, Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English and many others. As we know proficiency tests are an important area for L2 assessment, and doubtless these tests sometimes fail in determine if a person is able or not to spoke (W.W.) and understand English fluently. These exams in general are guided by numerical trends. A good example is found in "Placement Test" applied in FALE when students get admission in English Course. In my point of view this test have a lot of benefits like for example, guide the student in what he/she should improve to do the course but this kind of evaluation continue(s) (to) be a measuring (W.W. measurement). It is questionable whether "proficiency" can be scaled or not, if you are pre-intermediate or intermediate, for example. To these speculations we have only tendencies not a real assumption.

To sum up, there is a concerning related to proficiency, if it can be measured or not. Theoretically we do not have a well defined framework that deals perfectly with proficiency also (W.W.). What is important to assume is the fact that competence and proficiency have different meanings and proficiency is only gained with exposition to L2.

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