AbstractDuring a three‐year period of co‐operation between the English Department and the Institute of Educational Research at the University of Gothenburg, studies have been made with a view to clarifying a definition of the objectives of English language courses and improving methods of teaching and testing English language proficiency at university level. Considerable success was achieved in the construction of a test battery by means of which a reliable and comprehensive measure could be arrived at of students' written and oral proficiency. By the aid of these tests one could also define with a reasonable degree of accuracy the requirements for a normal course of study.Since the level of proficiency at entrance emerges as the principal determinant of the level exhibited a year later, the author argues that the specification of objectives (for language proficiency) should take account not only of the terminal level but also of the initial le