This is a three-year research project (2004-2006) that aims to develop a diagnostic and/or evaluation test of Toyo Eiwa freshman students\u27 English proficiency for the purpose of placement and formulating teaching goals. The interim report consists of 3 parts. The first part is an analysis of TOEIC-IP and G-TELP Level 4 results. A correlation between quality of grammatical knowledge and high scores, and a stronger correlation between grammar and reading scores than that between grammar and listening scores were found. Another analysis of the preliminary grammar tests administered during the classtime indicates that students with low scores have not learned properly how forms of the words and their grammatical functions work to make a complete sentence. In general, the students\u27 grammatical errors can be ascribed to their insufficient understanding of parts of speech which act as main elements of the five basic sentence patterns, especially regarding their morphological distinctions. In Part II, the results of an experimental diagnostic and/or evaluation test reconfirm (1) that the level of students\u27 English proficiency shows some distinctive aspects of interlanguage with possible future improvements, (2) that a grammar-centered paper test has some problems to overcome concerning its reliability, mainly because it is not done in the natural speech environment, (3) that it requires more improvements for a test based upon students\u27 need analysis, and further development of a verification system for washback effects in the students\u27 English learning motivation, and (4) that the first step to have the most fundamental English language ability is to understand the five basic sentence patterns by identifying, syntactically and morphologically, the parts of speech in a sentence. Finally, Part III is an argument that the English competence of university students should be built based on their firm acquisition of fundamental grammar, and reinforced by a deeper understanding of the English language system and culture, not to mention, English literature
