Reading Passages for the Course of Semantics: Tests for Students

The objective of this paper is to present and describe a teaching tool for linguistics students who are learning English, a tool which furthers their linguistic education at the same time as it gives them some challenging experience with reading practice with the kinds of tests they will encounter in the main international English language examinations, mainly, IELTS and TOEFL, and with English academic writing. The selected reading material introduces the foundations of formal semantics through a set of extracts from the works of classical semanticists of the 20th century, accompanied by a set of test-type questions for each of the reading passages. The comments after each test outline the characteristic features of test types presented. The importance of advancement in students’ reading potential is highlighted as crucial for their academic life in general and for their overall performance in English.