Special features of assessment in reading comprehension in a Finnish university language centre

: Lehto Marja-Liisa, Maijala Minna

Publisher: De Gruyter

: 2013

: Language Learning in Higher Education

: 1

: 3

: 1

: 109

: 125

: 17

: 2191-611X

: 2191-6128

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2013-0006

Since Finnish is not an Indo-European language, studying foreign languages in general and then also studying special fields through the medium of foreign languages may provide an extra difficulty for Finnish students. Most university language centres in Finland have organized reading comprehension courses in several foreign languages for the undergraduates of all faculties in the past, and some still do. The aim is to equip students with the competence they will need to deal with texts in foreign languages during their studies and later in their future working lives. In this article we present an analysis of the special features of assessment in reading comprehension courses with special reference to English and German. Firstly, a brief account is given about the development of the test types used in the past and at present. In the second section, we discuss assessment and testing in reading comprehension more generally. Thirdly, we examine the main test types used in our reading comprehension examinations, how they work in practice and what kind of information they provide about student performance. We then analyse and reflect on our own experiences with different types of test activities. Finally, we comment on the role of the use of the mother tongue (L1) and the teacher's personal practical knowledge and experience in choosing texts, designing tasks for the tests and assessing student performance.