Open AccessStarting point towards bilingualism in higher education: results in english at the university entrance test from a gender perspective
Author(s) -
María del Mar Pérez,
Francisco ManzanoAgugliaro,
S. Salaberri Ramiro
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
espiral
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1988-7701
DOI - 10.25115/ecp.v5i10.936
Subject(s) - syllabus , restructuring , test (biology) , perspective (graphical) , internationalization , neuroscience of multilingualism , mathematics education , point (geometry) , foreign language , psychology , higher education , pedagogy , sociology , political science , computer science , mathematics , paleontology , geometry , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , law , economics , biology , microeconomics
The current level of internationalization of Spanish universities is demanding an increase in the command of foreign languages among students. Numerous Spanish universities are introducing in their syllabi courses taught in languages different from Spanish, mainly English, through different multilingual programmes. The present paper analyzes the results obtained for the English exam at the Spanish university entrance test (PAU) from 2002 to 2010 in order to study the students’ language level before entering tertiary studies. We took a sample of 15897 students, 6454 men and 9443 women. Analytically processed data provide excellent qualitative comparisons between the two groups, showing the differences of both and contrasting results with the national trend. They also provide information about the specific factors that influence the outcomes of these types of tests, in contrast with certain gender stereotypes attributed to language performance. The present study reveals that,as a starting pointfor successfulbilingual education inhigher education,the results in English atthe entrance examinationto universityshouldbeon averageat least twopoints abovethe current. This would only bepossible by the increase of the number of hours devoted to language teaching as well as by the restructuring of the current language teaching system both in secondary and bachillerato.