Language testing and certification in an international context

Introduction. The aim of this research is to define what role continuous assessment plays in foreign language teaching. We analysed some of the most frequent communication and language mistakes by our research sample students in their written communications at the B2 level. We believe these correlations have yet to be closely studied in the context of the foreign language teaching process since there is a significant increase in the number of international students entering Slovak universities for programs implemented in the Slovak language. We also researched the current interest of our non-Slovak university students in verifying Slovak language competencies through ECL testing compared to the period before 2019 in correlation with their writing skills preparation. Materials and Methods. Our research sample included 200 randomly selected written communications by first-year international students of our University in the period of 2019-2022 in various fields of study at the age scale from 17 to 42. The students were from Russia, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic. We applied content analysis of the written communications concerning the most frequent mistakes from the morphological, syntactic and writing-accuracy points of view. We also used statistical methods to research the current interest in verifying foreign language competencies through ECL testing on the side of our international students. Results. The results delivered that the most frequent errors are typographical, mainly related to spelling, punctuation and paraphrasing; therefore, we can claim that in the Slovak language learning, it is significantly beneficial to focus on formal correctness, i.e. consistent acquisition of the Slovak language grammar system. We also identified the sociolinguistic adequacy of written communication problematic, i.e. style, clear statements formulations, and adherence to the text composition. The results also demonstrated the increase in our international university studentsʼ interest in verifying foreign language competencies through ECL testing compared to the period before 2019. Discussion and Conclusion. From the results it follows that teaching writing skills intensively with a focus on particularly identified problematic issues in written communications increases the learnersʼ language acquisition level. This study presents results that may be useful in the targeted language preparation of the international students recruited to Slovak universities as their home universities and their further preparation for undertaking Slovak language proficiency official verification. In addition, the results of our study may contribute to the further development of general professional education in foreign languages.