Abstract

This article examines students' literacy at a tertiary level. The study involved 40 post-graduate students enrolled in the English for Specific Purposes Course at the Law University of Lithuania. At the end of the course, learners' literacy skills were tested by administering reading and writing assignments as well as vocabulary and grammar tests. The main findings that have emerged as a result of this case study are typology of errors in writing, reading, vocabulary and grammar. Common writing mistakes include poor organization of a text, lengthy sentences, inconsistent usage of vocabulary, plagiarism, lack of structure, and various grammatical mistakes, like sentences without verbs, flaws in subject-verb agreement, misuse of tenses, spelling errors. Learners' linguistic deficit includes shortage of both professional and general vocabulary. Learners' factual performance in tests has been compared with their anticipated performance. The data on students' anticipated performance were obtained through self-assessment questionnaires administered a fortnight before the actual testing. The analysis of students' literacy allows to draw conclusions about efficiency in learnability. The key issue is students' lack of learning strategies, i.e. knowledge how to learn.