That was then, this is now : formal knowledge attainment among students of English at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Porto

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discover if the general assumption that students "know" more English at the end of their degree course than they "knew" at the beginning, in fact, corresponds to a quantifiable truth. The students in question receive on average, 500 hours of direct English language instruction as well as many more hours of associated study of literature, linguistics and other subjects during their four years at the Faculty of Letters the University of Porto. The investigation employed a grammaticality questionnaire as its principal means of inquiry, the formulation and the results of which are discussed in general as well as statistical terms.