General questions

• What is the CELU examination?
  
  • The CELU examination is the only examination officially acknowledged by the Ministry of Education and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina which tests the oral and written skills that a speaker of Spanish as a foreign language possesses in order to communicate in a variety of contexts and situations.
• What does the CELU examination consist of?
  
  • In the CELU examination there are sections to test the use of Spanish in everyday contexts, for example: reading and discussing an article, writing a letter in response to one you are given, listening to an interview and writing a report on it, watching an advertisement and talking about it, and so on. No specific questions about the language and grammar are asked.
• Is there special material to get ready for the examination?
  
  • As it is a test of general proficiency in Spanish, no specific courses or materials are required but getting ready for the examination presupposes courses focusing on language use, in both its written and oral modes.
• Which are the requirements to sit for CELU?
  
  • Candidates eligible to take the CELU examination are people whose native language is not Spanish. They must be sixteen years old and should have completed three years of high school (secondary education).
• Can a person whose parents are native speakers of Spanish but live in a foreign country sit for CELU?
  
  • If a candidate whose mother tongue is Spanish but was schooled in a language other than Spanish and he or she needs a Spanish proficiency certificate for work or school, the candidate is entitled to take the CELU examination.
• What documents are submitted when applying to sit for the CELU examination?
  
  • When registering to sit for the CELU examination, candidates need to submit the same ID they will carry the day of the examination. The number of the document presented will appear in the certificate issued. This document may be an identification card (ID) or a passport issued by official authority of the country of origin or of Argentina. Driving licenses or other documents will not be accepted.
• Which are the criteria to test the student’s level of Spanish?
  
  • CELU is a proficiency text, i.e., it aims at testing the candidate’s linguistic ability without taking into account any certificate they may have obtained in the past. It tests the candidate’s use of Spanish in a variety of contexts and for different purposes.
• Does CELU certificate have an expiration date?
  
  • No, CELU certificate has no expiration date. The evaluation committee certifies the performance capability of a Spanish speaker at the time of giving the exam but can not prove future modifications on that ability, both negatively and positively.
• Where can I submit/present a CELU certificate?
  
  • CELU certificate serves to prove knowledge of Spanish language of a non-native speaker. It is a useful document for filing in labor and/or academic institutions.
• Does CELU certificate help me to teach Spanish?
  
  • The certificate does not prove the CELU holder as a Spanish teacher.
• How many times can I sit for the exam?
  
  • You can sit for the exam as many times as you want or need.

Questions about the written section

• What is the written section like?
  
  • The written section consists of four tasks.
    First, candidates will listen to an audio recording of a radio program so that they can later write a text based on the instructions given. After that, they will read three texts taken from the media or other related sources, and they will be asked to produce three texts, such as readers’ letters, opinion articles, reports, and so on.
• What kinds of texts are included in the CELU examination?
  
  • The texts are authentic. You may find adds, messages, brochures, instructions, surveys, news reports, interviews, general information articles, opinion articles, personal and work letters, personal diaries, biographies, passages from short stories or novels, work reports, and reviews and essays about academic topics or about topics of general interest.
• Is the audio recording we have to listen to very difficult to understand?
  
  • The candidates will listen to the audio recording twice, and they will be allowed to take down notes. Even though the recording is authentic, candidates will not be expected to understand everything they hear, just the information needed to write their own text. For instance, they may be asked to write an opinion article about what is being discussed in the recording. In that case, they will have to understand the information which is given, who is giving it, and what is the overall situation like.
• Is the pronunciation in the recording ‘Argentine’?
  
  • Not necessarily. The speakers in the recordings are from different Spanish-speaking countries, especially South American countries. The audio recordings were taken from radios from all over the world or from oral presentations in working or academic contexts.
• May I use the dictionary during the test?
  
  • No, the candidates are not allowed to use dictionaries, books, or handouts during the test.
• How many lines or words do I have to write in each text?
  
  • Generally, a set number of lines is not specified; candidates write as many lines as they need to accomplish the task proposed. In some cases, a minimum number of lines is stated; however, the student usually decides how many lines to write, depending on the instructions and the purpose of the activity.
• What happens if I make too many grammatical mistakes?
  
  • In the CELU examination the number of "grammatical mistakes” does not determine the grade you receive. Even though it is true that grammatical accuracy contributes to better communication, what is taken into account when correcting the texts produced by the candidates is that they can appropriately address their interlocutor and achieve the goals of the task.
• What is tested in the texts I write?
  
  • The focus will be on the language used to produce a text and on how adequate the text is to the situation proposed. For instance, if you are asked to write a letter to a newspaper to express your opinion about a radio news report, your text will be adequate to the situation (1) if you coherently integrate the information taken from the audio recording, (2) if you address the newspaper readers in general, (3) if you give your opinion and support it, (4) if you do so with the style which is used when writing a formal letter about a current issue to interlocutors to whom you are not related whatsoever, and (5) if you support your opinion with due emphasis.

Questions about the oral section

• What is the oral section like?
  
  • The oral section consists of a 15-minute interview. There will be two teachers on the board: the candidate will talk to one of them. The other teacher will watch but may occasionally intervene.
• Is it divided into different parts?
  
  • In the first part of the interview, or “Presentation”, the teachers and the candidate introduce themselves. They will talk about the candidate’s surroundings, their activities, interests or expectations about the future. As the dialogue is constructed between the candidate and the teacher, they may speak about everyday matters or about a topic which the candidate finds interesting. In the second part, or “Exposition”, the candidate is required to speak about a topic for at least two minutes. To do so, he or she is asked to choose between two pictures with rubrics. The exposition has to be based on the picture and rubrics selected but the follow-up conversation may be about a related topic. The texts and images are taken from advertisements, statistics, graphics, headlines, brochures, or very short newspaper articles or reports. Once the candidate has selected a picture, he or she will have two minutes to organize the content and organization of the exposition. The third and last part, or "Dialogue”, consists of a role playing task in which the teacher and candidate take up roles and engage in a conversation, having in mind the situation proposed. The candidate is given a written description of a communicative situation which is related to the topic of the picture about which he or she already talked about in the exposition. The situations proposed may require formal or informal use of the language. For instance, it may be a chat between friends (in which one of them is trying to persuade the other one to stop smoking, or is giving advise about something), a job interview, a complaint about a company's services, and so on. The roles and situations are imaginary but may very well take place in Spanish-speaking communities.
• What is tested?
  
  • The testing criteria are: appropriateness to the situation content proposed in the instructions for the exposition and the dialogue (in parts II and III), fluency, pronunciation and intonation, and grammatical and lexical appropriateness to the purposes of the conversation. In general terms, in order to achieve the communicative goal proposed by the task, the candidate must hold the floor during the exposition and must contribute to the development of the dialogue, holding the floor whenever it is appropriate. Candidates must adjust their use of the language to the level of formality required by the situation, and must have the ability to ‘negotiate' meaning; for instance, if necessary, candidates must be able to paraphrase or reformulate their words in order to solve lexical problems, or select specific vocabulary to add emphasis. A candidate contributes to the development of the conversation when he or she uses linguistic resources to show his or her interest to communicate effectively and appropriately. Should there be pauses, these must be made to organize discourse or for reasons of style. No mother tongue fillers are produced. Sounds and intonation may not be native-like but they should be appropriate in terms of communicative effectiveness. The exposition (II) will be consistent with the topic proposed in the picture and rubrics. Should any related topics come up, they will be cohesively articulated and will be integrated naturally into the dialogue with the examiner. Candidates may describe, inform or express their opinion about the topic in a variety of ways. In the dialogue (II) the candidate achieves the goal of the task if he or she takes up the role proposed, interacts with the teacher asking questions and making comments, and complies with the speech acts proposed (complain, justify, explain, etc.), using the register and grammar which are most suitable for the situation.
• What happens if when speaking I make a grammatical mistake?
  
  • In the CELU examination the number of "grammatical mistakes” does not determine the grade you receive. The focus is not on accuracy but on the good points of your presentation: on expression, fluent use of the language, and lexical and grammatical appropriateness in different situations.
• What happens if I do not know the topic proposed very well?
  
  • Candidate are not expected to have specific knowledge about a certain topic but to talk and express themselves. If you are asked to talk about a topic you do not know, say it. Being able to give reasons and to make assumptions about a certain topic shows your language ability as well.
• Is it necessary to keep talking all the time?
  
  • The CELU examination is not about talking all the time. You will have a conversation with the examiner. However, it is important that you 'cooperate’, that is to say, that you are willing to talk, make comments and hold the floor whenever it is suitable.
• I learnt Spanish in Mexico, Will I have problems in the oral section of the CELU exam?
  
  • All Spanish varieties are accepted; these differences may include pronunciation, register, lexis or syntax. The only requirement is for the candidate and the examiner to communicate effectively. For instance, should there be a misunderstanding due to a word which is unknown to the examiner, he or she may remark this and the candidate should make the misunderstanding clear by paraphrasing what he or she had said previously and this will not be considered a mistake. This kind of dialogue shows the candidate's ability to use Spanish.
• Is it necessary to use “vos”?
  
  • No, the use of “vos” (instead of “tú”) is not compulsory. The candidate is expected to handle formal/informal registers clearly and coherently, regardless of the language variety he or may speak.