Spanish university students' low level of english: possible causes

Resumen

The existing educational systems are based on obtaining curricular skills which are among the results obtained in a competencies assessment system.This educational model requires a hierarchical organisation of learning objectives, according to each objective's degree of difficulty, and a minimal degree of homogeneity amongst students' aptitudes. Nevertheless, the generic competencies characterising the mainstreaming proposed by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) were not considered by traditional curricula.Thus, curricular heterogeneity of students' experience complicates the teaching of a second language. This fact becomes especially relevant for foreign languages, and more specifically English, since the objectives of EHEA and second language learning represent fundamental pillars upon which social cohesion, essential for a fully united Europe to progress into the future, is constructed.This factor motivated an internal study, of a non-experimental and descriptive nature, which aimed to determine our students' level of English. Furthermore, this study compared its results with those of other studies conducted nationally and throughout Europe. There were no surprises and Spanish students' low level of English was verified.This article presents an in-depth analysis of this situation through a retrospective look at the teaching of foreign languages in Spain, by comparing teaching methodologies specific to foreign languages, and examining the possible causes of the low success rate of foreign language learning in our country.The main conclusions obtained in this study are as follows:1. Oral skills must be fostered, as there is an enormous difference between students' abilities in written and oral competencies, logically favouring the former.2. Foreign language teaching must become primarily pragmatic, since various factors - geographic, cultural, social and also linguistic - drastically reduce the opportunities to practice English in real contexts in Spain.3. And lastly, while some studies do deem the level of grammar to be acceptable, we believe this topic merits further debate within the context of higher education, as there is evidence confirming the contrary.