Certificat de nivell elemental de català
The purpose of the test is to assess whether the learner has mastery in the use of language that allows him/her to deal, with effectiveness and autonomy, tasks and social situations of communication typical of everyday life. It corresponds to level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) of the Council of Europe.
There are five components:
Reading
Candidates must be able to understand the main issue and relevant details of short texts written for information, dissemination and opinion, not linguistically complex, on topics of general or personal interest. Can locate and understand information from several short, simple texts to solve a specific need. Texts are taken mainly from news, short reports, letters, leaflets, basic opinion articles...
There are usually four texts with twenty items of the following task types: true/false, multiple-choice and matching.
Writing
Candidates are expected to be able to write personal letters in order to give or ask for information, report events, express wishes, make plans, proposals, etc. They are expected not to use very complex structures, but the message should be clear. They may make grammatical, lexical and spelling errors does not hinder the understanding of the text.
There is one written task. It requires the candidate to write a personal letter, of about 150 words in length. There are five guiding points which provide the basis of the letter. The task includes a clear description of the purpose and the audience.
Listening
Candidates are expected to understand and extract specific information of short texts produced in everyday situations (advertisements, information of general interest, news, loudspeaker announcements, short dialogues, etc). They should understand specific details from longer texts, such as interviews.
There are two sections. The first consists of a text lasting about four minutes with fifteen written items. The task type is true/false. The second section has five short texts. For each of these there is a written multiple-choice item. All texts are recorded.
Speaking
The candidates must be able to participate in discussions on topics related to personal or general experience, with explanations, descriptions and expressing their opinions easily, and must be able to operate effectively in everyday situations (eg.: inquire, explain and apologize, make a proposal ...).
Candidates are tested individually by two examiners (speaker and consultant). There are two sections. In the first section candidates must have a conversation with the speaker to narrate and describe events and express opinions on general interest topics. The second section involves completing five tasks based on everyday situations appropriately and sufficiently accurate.
Structural Competence
Candidates are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and control of the basic structures of language system.
There are two sections. The first consists of ten sentence transformation items and fifteen gap-filling items related to grammatical aspects (verbs, pronouns, prepositions…). The second section consists of fifteen gap-filling items, related to vocabulary.
Weighting of components
The Reading, Listening and Speaking components each carry 25% of the total marks and Writing and structural competence 12.5% each.
Results
There are four pass grades: Excellent, Good, Satisfactory and Pass.
Candidates are considered to have passed if they obtain at least 60% in the speaking component and 60% in the rest of the examination.
Certificates are awarded to all successful candidates.