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Components of Language Proficiency
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15 December 2026

Presents substantial evidence for the foundational role of second language linguistic knowledge over and above that of motivation and self-efficacy
This book presents a comprehensive study into the components of language proficiency among 302 adolescent learners of French and Spanish in state-funded schools in England.
It fills a significant gap in research on language learning in highly instructed settings and offers critical insights into current debates in modern language learning, teaching and assessment, both in England and internationally.
It presents data on three components of proficiency – linguistic knowledge, skills and affect – and explores how these components relate to each other. Alongside their findings, the authors provide online summaries of each chapter and freely available materials for use in research, teaching and testing.
This book will be of interest to students, trainee and practising teachers, teacher educators, and researchers of instructed second language learning, teaching and testing.
This book is open access under a CC BY NC ND licence.
Amber Dudley is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of York, UK. Her research explores language learning and assessment among monolingual and multilingual learners of French and Spanish in schools in England.
Emma Marsden is Professor of Language Education at the University of Oxford, UK. She has published widely on second language learning, teaching and assessment, and she was editor of the journal Language Learning. She has (co-)directed international open scholarship initiatives, such as OASIS providing accessible summaries of published research.
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Conceptualising Language Proficiency
Chapter 3. The ComLaP Study
Chapter 4. Vocabulary Knowledge
Chapter 5. Grammar Knowledge
Chapter 6. Knowledge of SoundSymbol Correspondences
Chapter 7. Reading Proficiency
Chapter 8. Lexical Inferencing in Reading
Chapter 9. Listening Proficiency
Chapter 10. Writing Proficiency
Chapter 11. Speaking Proficiency
Chapter 12. Conclusion