Certificat de nivell intermedi de català

This is an examination at an intermediate level based on the Council of Europe's Vantage specification, which tests candidates' ability to deal with a wide range of communicative situations with a certain degree of linguistic independence. They should demonstrate a sufficient level of linguistic resources allowing themselves to express with adequate fluency, correctness and accurateness.

There are five components:

Reading

Candidates are expected to be able to read texts of various kinds on topics of general interest and to show understanding of the gist or main points as well as points of specific details, distinguishing main from subsidiary points and opinions from factual information, and inferring points of view and no explicit information in the text.

There are three tasks, each of which consists of a text and corresponding comprehension task, with a total of 20 items of following types: multiple matching, multiple choice, and true/false.

Writing

Candidates are expected to be able to write non-specialised texts of a descriptive, narrative and discursive nature in social, work or academic area. They are expected to produce written texts with a reasonable organisation and cohesion of ideas, an appropriate register and satisfactory language accuracy. Candidates show a reasonable range of structures and vocabulary.

Candidates must complete two tasks: a compulsory one and one from a choice of three. The first task is a personal letter in an informal register. The second is a formal letter, a report or a composition in a formal register. The tasks include a clear statement of the purpose and the target reader.

Listening

Candidates are expected to be able to understand texts as answerphone messages, conversations, discussions, announcements, extracts from radio programmes, interviews, commentaries or news at an intermediate level. Candidates are expected to show understanding of gist, main points and specific information and to deduce meaning (attitudes, feelings, roles of speakers).

There are three sections which last approximately forty minutes in all, with a total of fifteen items. The first section consists on five short texts, with one multiple-choice item for each of them. The second is a informal conversation between two or three speakers with four multiple-choice items. The third consists on a monologue or interview with six items of note taking and short written answers (one-two sentences).

Speaking

The standard test format is two candidates. Prompt materials are used to stimulate and guide the interaction (photographs, pictures, advertisements, guides)

Candidates are expected to show evidence of an ability to organise their speech with coherence, to display an appropriate range of linguistic resources, to employ appropriately complex utterances and to interact to fulfil the task requirements.

The paper is divided into three sections, each one focuses on a different interaction: First candidates must talk on his/her own about a topic for about one minute; Second candidates are provided with a visual stimulus and are asked to agree on a decision or conclusion about a question. Finally the examiner directs the conversation by encouraging the candidates to broaden and discuss further topics introduced in part 3.

Vocabulary and Structural Competence

Candidates are expected to demonstrate their knowledge and control of the language system by completing a number of tasks, most of which are based on authentic or on specially written texts.

There are six tasks, containing items of the following task types: gap filling (spelling), multiple-choice cloze (word selection according to semantic or structural context), sentence transformation, multiple-choice (word meaning selection) and word formation.

Weighting of Components

Each component is equally weighted at 20% of the total marks.

Results

There are four pass grades: excel·lent (very good), notable (good), bé (satisfactory), suficient (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.