Good point.

Any particular cloze test?

Andrea:)

On Sep 26, 2008, at 8:34 PM, Steve Kaufmann wrote:


> In Canada, and I suspect in the US, employers place great  

> importance on communication skills, as an attribute for employees.  

> This refers to both written and oral communication. There are  

> regular complaints from employers about the communication ability  

> of recent graduates from our universities. From my own experience  

> with recent graduates, I can say that these communication skills  

> are quite weak, surprisingly weak.This is true for native speakers,  

> and even more so the case with students who spent a long time in  

> ESL programs.

>

> The question may not be so much how well these respondents think  

> they read. It may be more a matter of what they read, and how much  

> they have been exposed to the kind of reading content that would  

> enable them to acquire a rich vocabulary, and expose them to  

> different ideas and literary experiences. These are usually  

> prerequisites for good communication skills.

>

> I firmly believe that the easiest measure of one's ability to  

> communicate in a language is the size of one's vocabulary, and I  

> mean passive vocabulary. This is quite easily measured in a close  

> test and has the great advantage of simplicity.Many other attempts  

> to describe levels of literacy and language proficiency just strike  

> me as too obtuse and subjective.

>

> Steve

>

>

>

>

> -- 

> Steve Kaufmann

> www.lingq.com

> 1-604-922-8514

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