Common errors made by Spanish graduate students to be avoided at B1 English oral exams

摘要

The European Higher Education Area requires graduate students to reach B1 level under the Common EuropeanudFramework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to obtain any university degree. This forces them to take officialudEnglish exams, both written and oral, which presents difficulties for Spaniards, as many of them claim not to have takenudany oral exam before. It is also challenging for teachers, who must combine the acquisition of communicative results,udperceived as more demanding, with the traditional use of English aspects and provide a more creative and pragmatic useudfor all of them.udConsidering the above, we have compiled a list of common pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical errors made byudSpaniards to be avoided at B1 oral exams, based on teachers’ notes from the three official B1 oral examination sessionsudat the university in the academic year 2013-2014. It aims to detect errors, mistakes and weaknesses so as to guide theudteaching-learning process in future B1 intensive programmes.