Diploma de Español (Nivel Inicial)

This is an examination based on the Council of Europe's Threshold specification, which tests the basic language skills needed to interact in social and work situations in a Spanish-speaking environment. It is the only officially accredited examination in Spanish as a Foreign Language at this level, and is recognised internationally by companies, chambers of commerce and educational establishments.

There are five components:

Reading

Candidates are expected to read short texts on subjects related to everyday life. The texts are simple, practical and contextualised, being taken from public notices, signs, personal letters, newspaper articles, forms, etc. There are twenty items of the following task types: multiple-choice, matching, true/false.

Writing

Candidates are expected to be able to write short, simple texts of a practical nature.
There are two tasks. The first involves filling in a form. The second requires the candidate to complete a short, relatively free task conveying information; this may take the form of a notice, postcard, letter or note. The response should be about 80–100 words in length.

Listening

Candidates must be able to understand short dialogues and simple, straightforward texts. They are expected to extract factual information, and also to be able to show an understanding of opinions, relationships between speakers, etc.

There are four sections, lasting a total of approximately twenty minutes, with twenty-two items of the following task types: multiple-choice, true/false, matching.

Speaking

Candidates are tested individually. They must be able to carry on a general conversation about themselves, participate in a role-play, talk about a situation and express opinions on the basis of visual stimuli.

Communicative Awareness

Candidates are expected to be able to understand the relationship between the content of an utterance and its communicative aim. They must be able to choose the correct sentence for a given situation and recognise the lexical and grammatical suitability of an utterance to its communicative purpose.

There are three sections. The first involves matching a speech act to a communicative situation.

There are five items. The second section involves identifying a word which is incorrectly used in a certain context. There are ten items. The third section requires the candidate to complete a text.

There are fifteen multiple-choice items.

Weighting of components

The Speaking and Listening components each carry 25% of the total mark, Reading carries 20% and Writing and Communicative Awareness 15% each.

Results

There are two grades: Pass and Fail. Certificates are awarded to all successful candidates.