Certificate of proficiency in English course evaluation and students’ preparation to writing in real-life situations – descriptive study

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present results of a case study carried out as a partial fulfilment for a Master Thesis. The case study referred to one of the parts of Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English. The Paper 2 includes Part 1, where a learner is required to complete a compulsory task such as an article, essay or a letter, and Part 2, in which a candidate is free to choose from four questions with diversified text types. Moreover, in CPE Paper 2 one can find a reflection of the social approach and as in all questions role of the reader is specified. Thus, a candidate knows to what type of a discourse community they have to write. What is also determined is the role of the writer and the purpose of writing in a breadth of task types. A candidate and their linguistic competence at this level could be compared to the ones of an educated native speaker. Therefore, they should be able to adjust their language register to a variety of culturally appropriate ways required to fulfil every task. Thus, the aim of the study was to observe whether a Certificate of Proficiency in English course prepares students to real-life writing outside a classroom context. For the purpose of MA dissertation a case study was conducted on a small group of students participating in a course at a private school of foreign languages.