Spanish Secondary School students’ oral competence in EFL: self-assessment, teacher assessment and assessment tasks (original) (raw)
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2020
Spain, following the recommendations of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2011), is undergoing a quick English-learning process in order to qualify the population as citizens of the world. The mastering of speaking skills in English is crucial to ease personal, social, political, professional and economic relationships. For this reason, the objectives of this paper are: analysing the current regional and national legislation regarding foreign language communication; understanding how relevant it is for the Andalusian population to speak fluently in English, given the magnitude of the international tourism industry in Andalusia and the current European socio-educational context; as well as knowing if Andalusian Secondary Education students are aware of this situation, and how comfortable they feel with their current oral-skills in English nowadays.
THE CHALLENGE OF THE SKILL OF SPEAKING IN MONOLINGUAL SECONDARY EDUCATION CENTRES OF ANDALUSIA
Encuentro Journal, 2020
Spain, following the recommendations of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2011), is undergoing a quick English-learning process in order to qualify the population as citizens of the world. The mastering of speaking skills in English is crucial to ease personal, social, political, professional and economic relationships. For this reason, the objectives of this paper are: analysing the current regional and national legislation regarding foreign language communication; understanding how relevant it is for the Andalusian population to speak fluently in English, given the magnitude of the international tourism industry in Andalusia and the current European socio-educational context; as well as knowing if Andalusian Secondary Education students are aware of this situation, and how comfortable they feel with their current oral-skills in English nowadays. Resumen España, siguiendo las recomendaciones del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCER, 2011), se encuentra inmersa en un rápido proceso de aprendizaje del inglés que permita a sus gentes convertirse en ciudadanos del mundo. El dominio del componente oral de esta lengua es fundamental para facilitar las relaciones sociales, laborales, políticas o económicas. Por ello, esta investigación establece los siguientes objetivos: analizar la legislación estatal y autonómica vigente con respecto a la comunicación en lenguas extranjeras; entender hasta qué punto es relevante para la población andaluza el hecho de poder hablar con fluidez en lengua inglesa dada la envergadura del turismo internacional en Andalucía y el contexto socioeducativo europeo actual; tratar de averiguar si los estudiantes de Educación Secundaria andaluces son conscientes de esta situación, y conocer cómo de cómodos se sienten hoy día con la práctica de la destreza oral o speaking en lengua inglesa. Palabras clave: Proceso de aprendizaje del inglés, comunicación en lenguas extranjeras, turismo, contexto socioeducativo, speaking.
El reto de la destreza del speaking en centros de educación secundaria monolingües de Andalucía
2020
Spain, following the recommendations of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2011), is undergoing a quick English-learning process in order to qualify the population as citizens of the world. The mastering of speaking skills in English is crucial to ease personal, social, political, professional and economic relationships. For this reason, the objectives of this paper are: analysing the current regional and national legislation regarding foreign language communication; understanding how relevant it is for the Andalusian population to speak fluently in English, given the magnitude of the international tourism industry in Andalusia and the current European socio-educational context; as well as knowing if Andalusian Secondary Education students are aware of this situation, and how comfortable they feel with their current oral-skills in English nowadays.España, siguiendo las recomendaciones del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCER, 2011), s...
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 2017
The aim of this study is to determine the factors which harden learning English as a foreign language in the classes of the faculty of education in the university of Valladolid, Spain. As it is unquestionable today, English plays a significant role in the field of education as a Lingua Franca. Yet, learners of English experience various kinds of difficulties because of several reasons in the process of learning a foreign language. Hence, a descriptive study was conducted to bring about the problems students face while learning English in the educational system of Spain. 120 (87 females and 33 male) university students (1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd grade) participated in the study from different departments of Palencia Education Faculty of the university of Valladolid in the academic year 2015-2016. The data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed and classified thematically. The results revealed that university students exp...
2012
million people around the world were studying Spanish as a second language, a number surpassed only by the number of English learners. In the US alone, there are 6 million students of Spanish. In Europe, Spanish has 3.5 million students scattered throughout 38 countries. In Ivory Coast, in the African continent, 74% of all high schoolers choose Spanish as their required foreign language, and in China the number of students registered in Spanish classes has grown 160%. Since 2006, Brazil has instituted Spanish as a high school requirement, adding 11 million students and bringing the total number to 25 million learners of Spanish as a foreign language worldwide (Instituto Cervantes 2006). Calculations place the wealth generated by activities associated with the teaching of Spanish at 15% of Spain's GDP (Delgado, Alonso & Jiménez 2007) of which one third comes from courses. Unfortunately, we lack numbers for Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Costa Rica, which also attract growing numbers of students through study abroad programs. The future of the teaching of Spanish is as promising as it is challenging: shortage of qualified teachers, small presence of Spanish on the Internet, and the need to adapt teaching approaches to optimize language learning in different contexts. For example, US Latinos cannot be taught Spanish as if it were a foreign language.
2013
The European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC), the first survey of its kind carried out in the world, was designed to collect information about the foreign language proficiency of students in the last year of lower secondary education (ISCED2) or the second year of upper secondary education (ISCED3) in European participating countries. Spain’s participation in the ESLC has provided comprehensive data about the teaching and learning of foreign languages in our country and a means to compare data with other Adjudicated Entities. The information collected will be highly valuable to improve our students’ language proficiency. By means of the analysis of the ESLC database, we have tried to corroborate the hypothesis that target language exposure and use in non-formal contexts leads to better results in ‘listening’. Data from the ESLC show that the students from countries with the best results in listening are often exposed to English outside school, within the context of language-fr...
International Journal of English Studies, 2014
Current national curricula, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, and EFL materials highlight the importance of the students' development of oral skills. This study stems from a cross-sectional survey of the teaching of oral skills in Secondary Education in a Spanish local context (Aragón) carried out in 2012 on both teachers and students of English. The present paper focuses on the answers obtained from the group of teachers in order to provide a snapshot of their attitudes, beliefs and expectations regarding the teaching, learning and assessment of oral skills, as well as the implementation of some measures aimed at increasing the required level of oral competence in the foreign language. Teachers' answers reveal that in spite of what is indicated in language policies, oral skills are not sufficiently practiced and/or assessed; that students are still reluctant to engage in oral activities and do not, therefore, reach the required level in these skills.