Performance of first year university students in the speaking tasks of a simulated University Entrance Examination

Authors

Jesús García LabordaSalto de línea Universidad de Alcala

Gloria Luque AgullóSalto de línea Universidad de Jaén

Ana Isabel MuñozSalto de línea Universidad Católica de Ávila

Margarita BakievaSalto de línea Universidad de Valencia

DOI

10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2015-369-292

Abstract

The debate over the Foreign Language Test (English) in the University Entrance Examination (PAU) has become a critical issue in the Spanish Educational system. Despite the Ministry of Education’s interest in changing a test that has its strong emphasis on reading, writing and grammar but a general negligence towards listening and speaking, limited changes have been done by the regional administrations. This absence of evaluation of oral aspects in the exam may lead to a disregard for those aspects in the last levels of the educational process and, subsequently, low competence levels in oral language. To test the oral competence of high school graduates, a set of speaking tasks were designed and delivered to 169 first semester students from three different Spanish universities who had recently taken the PAU to observe their speaking. Results showed that the large majority of the students in the research have a B1 with an enormous percentage of students in the A1-A2 band. These results do not significantly differ from a previous study from the Ministry of Education and show the need to include speaking tasks in the University Entrance Examination or the future High School graduation diploma. Qualitative studies also suggested that the way to deliver the tasks and the testing approach could possibly have aneffect on the students’ performance.

Keywords

Testing; oral competence; Common European Framework for modern languages (CEFR); impact; comparative studies.