Choice of studying English by the first year students of UASVM. Motivations, acquisition level, influence factors

Abstract

For a significant number of university freshmen the choice of improving their level of English is a priority determined by its worldwide access. This allows them to obtain information from foreign scientific literature and to find a job in foreign farms in the country and abroad. Given the fact that levels of acquisition of this language is different for the 1st year students, the study aims to identify the knowledge of this language, the causes that led to the differentiation of preuniversity education and the motivations that led them to choose the study of English of all the other four foreign languages (French, German, Spanish and Italian). The study was conducted in groups of university freshmen in the horticulture and landscape design specializations. Using the questionnaire method and direct investigations the results revealed that more than half of the students were assigned in groups of pre-intermediate and intermediate, 30% upperintermediate and advanced, and almost 10% in beginner (basic English). The knowledge of English of a high school graduate who came to the agronomy university was determined by a combination of factors: the number of years of English study during pre-university education; the number of weekly hours of English language; interest to complete their vocabulary from extracurricular sources; motivation offered by the presence of English within the baccalaureate examination. Given the above situation, the teachers of English from agronomic higher education should establish appropriate strategies and find the most suited methods designed to ensure the best acquisition of specialized vocabulary in English by the end of their studies.