Although FL writing is in all probability going to be the least used skill outside and beyond the university language programme, this is not a reason for neglecting it, either as a teaching activity or an assessment method. Free writing in the FL reveals very clearly students' underlying weaknesses in the language, ones which in spoken communication might be labelled 'performance error' or put down to 'communicative pressure'.

Moreover, essays or summary writing are an especially effective vehicle for assessing higher-level language skills, or cognitive academic language proficiency, since they allow students space for distinctive treatment of a complex topic and give them scope to show what they can do linguistically, ie to employ varied structures, a wide range of vocabulary and idiom.