A Bridge Course of 96 hours was prepared with an objective of developing the five language skills i.e., LC, LNC, RC, GC, and EP, of college entrants in the Pre-University courses run by colleges of Karnataka State. In order to evaluate the efficacy of both the materials and the procedures and the methods for teaching suggested therein, an experimental project was devised. First, 730 P.U.C. students from thirteen colleges located in the cities of Bangalore, Bijapur, Dharwar and Mysore were selected and given a pre-test comprising 8 sub-tests and second, 84 students from three colleges in Mysore and two in Bijapur who volunteered for the course were given intensive training in their own colleges by the lecturers specially trained for conducting the same at C.I.I.L., Mysore. After the training course, the Experimental Group as well as the Control Group of 84 students who were selected randomly from among those who took the pre-test but did not opt for training were administered the same pre-test as the post-test. The data collected were analysed through appropriate statistical tests. The analysis of results gave support to the following findings which were construed as assumptions and predictions in the form of hypothesis:

A. Hypothesis Related to the Project

(1) The college entrants in the PUC courses who were given intensive training through the Bridge Course showed greater improvement in their language skills and academic performance than those who were not.

(2) Significant differences existed between the language skills of males and females.

(3) Significant differences existed in some language skills of the students coming from homes having different parental incomes, parental education and parental occupation.

(4) The test and the sub-tests possessed a substantial amount of validity and a fair proportion of reliability.

B. Theoretical Hypothesis

Language skills are hierarchically related.

It was statistically demonstrated that

(a) EP> LC> GC> LNC> RC, and

(b) RC

RC + LNC

RC + LNC + GC

RC + LNC + GC + LC

RC + LNC + GC + LC + EP