The Impact of English Language Proficiency on Writing Critical Literary Assessments

Abstract

This research paper seeks to investigate the importance and impact of proficiency in English language, especially in contexts where English is a foreign language, in creating well-versed literary analyses produced by university students. This study theorizes that students who have not profoundly established proper proficiency in English and indispensable critical skills are most prone to demonstrate low-grade analytical quality in their literary critical evaluations. The mainstream in the field of language teaching utilizes literature only as one of the potential learning aids that offer demanding decoding challenges to the students. The overall quality, however, of language proficiency across the students’ literary critical writings is less investigated, especially in contexts where English is a foreign language and specifically among the students who study at the Department of English at University of Human Development (UHD). The present study argues that different elements that shape language proficiency coalesce, in collaboration with developed literary and critical skills, in adequately written critical assessments of literary works. Moreover, Educational workers’, at English departments, foremost priority, based on their mission ─teaching either literature or language─ is, accordingly to hone students’ critical and language skills. Notwithstanding, the very title of the BA program in English language and literature predominantly considers the vital role of language proficiency.