Measurement of Listening and Reading Comprehension Skills in Students of English Pedagogy in a Chilean University

 

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Autores: Cisterna-Zenteno, Cecilia, Soto-Hernández, Valentina, Díaz-Larenas, Claudio
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de Publicación:2016
Descripción:The article presents the results of an investigation aimed at measuring the skills of reading comprehension and listening comprehension of English pedagogy students in a Chilean university. Three standardized tests from ESOL Cambridge University were applied to students in second, third and fifth years, respectively:  Key English Test (KET), Preliminary English Test (PET) and First Certificate Exam (FCE). The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS program through descriptive statistics. In addition, these results were supplemented with information gathered from three focus groups which aimed at determining the main difficulties arousing during the execution of the tests. The results revealed that students showed problems in their listening comprehension and reading comprehension abilities in KET and FCE tests, where the latter obtained the lowest level of achievement. On the other hand, in the PET exam, approval scores reached the best level. In the focus groups, students expressed that their main difficulties were: adequate understanding of instructions for each task, high level of concentration required for these exams, and little exposure to trials of this type of measuring instruments. The article raises a possible explanation for the low results in two of the tests, using the concept of plateau effect in the process of learning a language. It concludes with a reflection on the English teacher initial training in Chile, the importance of knowing the content and the challenges facing the educational system, as well as the training institutions based on the new pedagogical standards established by the Ministry of Education.
País:Portal de Revistas UNA
Institución:Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Portal de Revistas UNA
Lenguaje:Español
Inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.www.una.ac.cr:article/7493
Acceso en línea:https://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/EDUCARE/article/view/7493
Palabra clave:Disciplinary knowledge
standardized tests
reading comprehension
listening comprehension
Common European Framework of Reference.
Conocimiento disciplinar
exámenes estandarizados
comprensión lectora
comprensión auditiva
marco común europeo de referencia.