Assessment of Spanish as a Foreign Language for Specific Academic Purposes: A Current Need in the University Field

Abstract

In the Spanish-speaking field, there is no compulsory certification by universities that certifies and requires a certain level of Spanish to university exchange students. However, there is a need to know the level of Spanish of these foreign students and how the existing tests has been validated in this context. This quantitative study shows the results of testing an online Spanish as a foreign language for specific academic purposes prototype test for a B2 level, applied to a sample of 28 foreign exchange students at a Chilean university. These results show that this prototype is valid to determine the level of proficiency in Spanish of students in an academic setting. However, new testings to verify the trends observed are needed and a readjustment of the number of segments for this test is suggested.