Higher education institutions without foreign language continuity

Abstract

This article attempts to fill a research gap in the literature where there is no research in the available literature on the general foreign language/foreign-language-for-specific-purposes discontinuity at the secondary/tertiary interface. The article reports on the findings of a study that aimed to acquire the opinions of the teachers of foreign languages for specific purposes regarding various approaches to managing a general foreign language/foreign-language-for-specific-purposes transition period. Namely, at some European, including Slovenian, institutions of higher education there is no foreign language instruction for first-year students. As a consequence, discontinuity at this crucial secondary/tertiary interface may give rise to general foreign language attrition - an obstacle to subsequent foreign-language-for-specific-purposes learning in higher education. The results of in-depth interviews with 29 teachers point towards grammar in the second year as a factor interconnecting interrupted general foreign language instruction with foreign languages for specific purposes.