Spoken Language Spanish
Overview
The Spoken Language Spanish test measures the ability of non-native Spanish speakers to respond
orally in a coherent, comprehensible, acceptable, and timely manner to a variety of questions,
instructions, and situations. The test produces an overall score, as well as the following four subscales:
Sentence Mastery, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Pronunciation.
The test is administered through a computer prompt, where the candidate is provided detailed
instructions. Instruction sheets may be provided in either English or Spanish. He/she is then directed to
complete the assessment via the telephone. The system presents the candidate with a series of spoken
prompts in Spanish at a conversational pace and elicits oral responses in Spanish. Sound files are
automatically created, assessed for accuracy, and stored. Upon completion, the test is scored
immediately, with speech samples from the testing event available in the final report.
Details
Knowledge,
Skills, Abilities,
and
Competencies
Measured
Job Level:
All
Job Family/Title:
All
Localizations Available:
Spanish (Region Neutral)
Average Testing Time (minutes):
15 minutes
Time Allowed (minutes):
Not Applicable
Maximum Number of Questions:
60
Designed for Unproctored Environment:
Yes
Question Format:
Part A: Reading
Part B: Repeats
Part C: Opposites
Part D: Short Answer
Part E: Sentence Builds
Part F: Story Retelling
Part G: Open Questions
Product Category:
Spoken Language
The Spoken Language Spanish test measures the candidate’s ability to understand spoken Spanish and
speak it intelligibly at a native-like conversational pace on everyday topics.
The test consists of an overall score and four subscale scores:
Sentence Mastery: This reflects the ability to understand, recall, and produce Spanish phrases and
clauses in complete sentences. Performance is based on accurate syntactic processing and appropriate
usage of words, phrases, and clauses in meaningful sentence structures.
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Vocabulary: This reflects the ability to understand common everyday words spoken in sentence context
and to produce such words as needed. High performers possess familiarity with the form and meaning of
everyday words and their use in connected speech.
Fluency: This reflects the rhythm, phrasing and timing evident in constructing, reading and repeating
sentences. High performers possess speech that is smooth, with few, if any, hesitations, omissions, or
repetitions.
Pronunciation: This reflects the ability to produce consonants, vowels, and stress in a native-like
manner in sentence context. Performance is based on knowledge of the phonological structure of
everyday words.
Sample
Questions
Spoken Language Spanish Question Prompt:
The entire Spoken Language Spanish test is conducted using the Spanish language. All question
prompts are provided in Spanish and all candidate responses should be performed using Spanish. The
example questions below are presented in English, however Spanish versions of these examples can be
provided on request.
Reading:
Please read the sentences as you are instructed. (The candidate has 8 to 12 sentences written in
Spanish presented to him/her on his/her test paper).
For example: a voice says, “Please read sentence four.”
The candidate will read sentence four out loud.
A voice then says, “Please read sentence two.”
The candidate will then read sentence two out loud.
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Repeats:
Please repeat each sentence that you hear.
For example: a voice says, “Leave town on the next train.”
The candidate says, “Leave town on the next train.”
Short Answer Questions:
Please give a simple answer to the questions.
For Example: a voice says, “Would you get water from a bottle or a newspaper?”
The candidate says, “A bottle” or “From a bottle”.
Sentence Builds:
Please rearrange the word groups into a sentence.
For example: a voice says, “was reading”...”my mother”…”her favorite magazine”
The candidate says, “My mother was reading her favorite magazine.”
Story Retells:
The candidate will hear three short stories in Spanish. After each story, the candidate will have 30
seconds to retell it in Spanish. He/she is instructed to retell as much of the story as possible in Spanish,
including the situation, characters, actions, and ending.
Open Questions:
The candidate will have 30 seconds to answer each of two questions. The questions will be about family
life or personal choices. Each question will be spoken twice, followed by a beep. At the end of 30
seconds, another beep will signal the end of the time the candidate has to answer the question.
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Sample Reports
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