Setting the standards for the foreign language speaking tasks of the New Baccalaureate General Test

One of the most significant aspects of the Spanish new educational reform is the Baccalaureate General Test which is intended to replace the former University Entrance Examination. The new test will include an oral part, which needs to be created, based on current research on the field (Bueno-Alastu...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Garcia Laborda, Jesus|||0000-0003-0125-4611, Bueno Alastuey, María Camino, Luque Agullo, Gloria, Muñoz Alcon, Ana
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2014
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)
Repositório:e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/57991
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10017/57991
https://dx.doi.org/10.4304/tpls.4.9.1763-1769
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Spain Baccalaurate General Test
Speaking competence testing
Pilot speaking test
Oral test validation
Filología
Philology
Descrição
Resumo:One of the most significant aspects of the Spanish new educational reform is the Baccalaureate General Test which is intended to replace the former University Entrance Examination. The new test will include an oral part, which needs to be created, based on current research on the field (Bueno-Alastuey & Luque, 2010), and tested with students from different regions in Spain to confirm its validity. This paper describes the preparation and first results of a pilot study using some proposed tasks. The speaking tasks were based on the ones currently used in the Cambridge Preliminary English Test but conveniently adapted to the Spanish context as suggested by some studies (Amengual-Pizarro & Mendez García, 2010). This paper shows the perceived strengths and weaknesses of those tasks and the test based on current testing literature on construct definition (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) and validation (Weir, 2005; Fulcher, 2010; Ekbatani, 2011). Results showed that the test corresponds better to classroom practice and favors both washback and language development at a lower cost.