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Current Methods for Assessing the Level of Foreign Language Proficiency of University Students

The associative technique is a traditional method to estimate a student’s foreign language proficiency. The aim of this article is to review the current methods for monitoring and assessing the level of foreign language proficiency of students; the arguments in favour of choosing the associative method of testing for knowledge of lexical semantics; and how assessments are conducted using this method through an associative experiment. The article is based on semantic analysis and field construction of the associative concept at the post-experimental stage. The experiment involved two groups of Ukrainian-speaking students studying German as a foreign language. Each group (control and experimental) consisted of 20 people. The results demonstrate that the assessment of the students’ linguistic and communicative competencies requires consideration of parameters in multiple aspects: paradigmatic, syntactic, syntagmatic relations; knowledge of typical idiomatic and phraseological correlations and all possible logical-associative relations. The experiment revealed shortcomings to include: contamination; weak knowledge of phraseology and moderate ability to establish logical relationships. In order to avoid the above shortcomings, there is a need to use associative experiment in foreign language learning and computer programs to achieve traditional associative learning methods. Lexical-semantic concept analysis revealed different content for semi-peripheral, peripheral and extreme peripheral zones. The article also outlines further promising areas of research, including psycholinguistic and metalinguistic ones. The research is potentially useful for the development of didactic computer programs, for the improvement of associative diagnostic methods in foreign language teaching, etc. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.19.10.17