UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' SELF-ASSESSED ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MOBILLITY

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to gain an empirical insight into final-year university students' self-assessment of their English as foreign language (EFL) proficiency regarding different linguistic domains relevant to their communication in the context of international student mobility. A quantitative research design was utilized and data were obtained through a structured five-point Likert scale questionnaire created for this purpose and administered among final-year students (N=729) of 10 faculties of the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, partaking in international mobility programs. The gathered data indicate that the majority of students (63%) assess their EFL proficiency as sufficient for participating in mobility programs. The self-assessment scores reveal that students reported the highest confidence (high proficiency) in everyday communication (3.95) and listening comprehension of lectures and general communication in English (3.71) with respect to language skills, and wide general vocabulary (3.59) and excellent pronunciation (3.52) with respect to other segments of language knowledge. The lowest ratings (moderate proficiency) were given to writing (3.12) and speaking (3.22) on subject-specific topics, academic style conventions (2.91) and specialized vocabulary (2.97). This indicates that students perceive productive skills and subject-specific domains of their language competence as more challenging compared to receptive skills and general domains. The findings also indicate that there is a clear need for intensifying instructional support in specialized vocabulary and raising academic genre awareness.