The present study examines the relationships among the variables believed to affect Spanish undergraduates' willingness to communicate in English. The participants were 195 students majoring in several degrees at the University of Oviedo. A questionnaire and a standardized English Test were administered to the students in February-March 2013.…

Previous research on the difference in terms of lexical transfer between CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and non-CLIL students has revealed that CLIL students produce fewer lexical transfer errors than non-CLIL students. This study aimed at comparing the lexical transfer production of two groups of students (CLIL and non-CLIL) and…

The new requirement placed on students in tertiary settings in Spain to demonstrate a B1 or a B2 proficiency level of English, in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL), has led most Spanish universities to develop a program of certification or accreditation of the required level. The first part of this…

This paper examines some of the best known proficiency tests in English, with particular focus on the oral component. Attention is paid to the following issues, among others: the weighting of oral elements in testing, the criteria used for the assessment of oral skills and the relation of these to the general guidelines in the "Common…

Language testers operate within two frames of reference: norm-referenced (NRT) and criterion-referenced testing (CRT). The former underpins the world of large-scale standardized testing that prioritizes variability and comparison. The latter supports substantive score meaning in formative and domain specific assessment. Some claim that the…

This paper reviews the progress made in washback studies over the quarter century since Hughes' (1989) placed it at the centre of his textbook "Testing for Language Teachers." Research into washback and the development of models of washback are described and an agenda is suggested for test developers wishing to build washback into…

The current English section of the University Entrance Examination (PAU) has kept the same format for twenty years. The Bologna process has provided new reasons to vary its current format, since the majority of international reputed tests usually include oral sections with both listening and speaking tasks. Recently the Universidad de Alcalá…

The increasingly diverse language backgrounds of their students are creating new challenges for English-medium universities. One response in Australian and New Zealand institutions has been to introduce post-entry language assessment (PELA) to identify incoming students who need to enhance their academic language ability. One successful example of…

In this paper an updated overview of the main errors that Spanish students make when writing the English exam in the University Entrance Examination is provided. To do so, a Computer-aided Error Analysis (CEA) (Dagneaux, Denness & Granger, 1998) was conducted on a representative sample of the students who took the exam in June 2008 in Jaen, and…

The goal of this study is to investigate the role of working memory capacity in L2 attainment and performance. The study uses an L1 reading span task to measure working memory of a group of 59 high-intermediate/advanced learners of English, and a film retelling task to measure their oral production. The analysis first showed a moderate to high…

Several research studies have proven a direct relationship between the amount of words known by a foreign language student and his/her language proficiency. Therefore, knowing the amount of words that our students are acquainted with would help teachers to predict their general ability in the foreign language. The aim of this study is to determine…

This paper tracks the increase in the overall word reception knowledge of 224 young pupils in their 4th, 5th and 6th grades of primary education and in their 1st year of secondary education (7th grade), who learn EFL in a formal context. The 2,000 word frequency band of The Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt and Clapham, 2001, version 2) is…

Describes how some background factors influenced the way in which one experienced rater dealt with a number of operations involved in setting up and applying scoring criteria in the assessment of 60 Test of English as a Foreign Language essays. Implications are drawn for both future research into interrater variability and for rater training.…