Competências do século XXI, transição para o Ensino Superior e sucesso académico: Estudo do nível de proficiência linguística em Inglês e Português dos estudantes do 1º ano da Universidade de Coimbra

Abstract

Among "21st-century skills", one of the most ubiquitous terms in the international education debates, the ability to use mother tongue and foreign languages, specifically English, is pointed out as vital to communicate with clearness in a global-village (the borderless and interdependent society of this century). Studies with Portuguese students in higher education have shown shortcomings in linguistic-communicative skills, in their mother tongue and in English, which compromises knowledge access and production, mobility, and academic and professional success. This paper aims to disclose and discuss the data collected with English and Portuguese proficiency tests in a University of Coimbra first-year-student sample, from the academic year 2008/2009, in order to evaluate linguistic proficiency level, the variability of it in relation to some sociodemographic or student profile variables, as well as the relationship between the two levels of language proficiency.