Today’s students will be successful in the 21
st
century society if they manage to develop their inter
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cultural and language literacy which involves the subject matter knowledge, and the first and foreign
language competences with both cultures. The ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in
various culturally dependent contexts ensures the success in the technically stimulated global econo
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my and the intercultural communication and understanding while at the same time offering advanta
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ges related to international cooperation. In order to succeed in the current complex world, the Slovene
students will have to be able to use (inter)language communication skills in best possible ways, which
makes foreign language competence assessment a vital part of the fulfilment of the set goal.
In the article, the author gives an overview of the establishment of the foreign language standards in
the world from the sociological and pedagogical perspective, as their development is closely related to the changes of the society. Then the development of the European foreign language standards is
described, focusing on each reference level and on the two perspectives: content and performance.
The content perspective refers to the text types, task types, discourse, domains etc., while the per
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formance answers the question how well one can perform a certain language task. Both perspectives
are equally important and they were both respected in developing English language standards in the
English language curricula for the primary and secondary school.
The foreign language development thus mirrors a funnel which does not start on the top, but it grows
from the bottom way up to the top. After some time it is filled up with the content and language kno
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wledge, skills etc. which enable a user at the mastery level to function effectively and appropriately in
their own and foreign language societies.
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