Looking Beyond the English Test in the Spanish University Entrance Examination: A Didactic Proposal to Introduce the Active Development of the Key Competences in Second Year of Baccalaureate Studies

Abstract

[eng] The Spanish educational system establishes a two-year course, known as Baccalaureate studies, to access university. To do so, the student body of second year of Baccalaureate studies needs to take the Spanish University Entrance Examination, henceforth “SUEE”. To prepare for it, the current educational legislation in Spain encourages educational learning focused on the development of the key competences since it favours students’ learning processes and boosts their motivation to learn. As far as the English subject in post-obligatory secondary education is concerned, it must contribute, first and foremost, to the development of the communicative and linguistic competences. Nonetheless, the preparation of the English Test, henceforth “ET”, in the SUEE, leads to an overemphasis of the main skills presented in the test (i.e. reading and writing), which causes the complete disinterestedness and indifference of the students towards the development of the linguistic competence, especially the practice of the communicative skills (i.e. listening and speaking). Thus, the objective stated in the current Spanish educational legislation does not meet the reality found in schools. As a means of addressing this situation, this teaching proposal targets to provide the students with authentic inputs not only to foster their communicative skills, but also to encourage the active development of the learners’ key competences. Besides, further practice for both the written comprehension and production activities paralleling the ET format will be suggested from these authentic inputs as well. Therefore, with the intention of avoiding the negative washback effect that the preparation for the ET in the SUEE causes, this paper opts for a continuous evaluation of the key competences and the further development of these making use of the communicative skills, which have been clearly neglected in the ET.