Determinants of communicative competence in Spanish of migrant workers living in Madrid

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of certain individual and sociodemographic variables on the communicative competence in Spanish of a group of immigrant adults living in Madrid. To this end, their scores in the Diploma LETRA were analyzed applying a mixed methods research design (correlational and between-subjects design). The main results were as follows: (a) younger participants tended to obtain higher scores in the reading comprehension section, whereas the older ones achieved higher scores in the writing section; (b) length of stay in Spain correlated in a positive and statistically significant manner with reading comprehension, speaking, writing, as well as the overall performance of the participants in the Diploma LETRA; (c) literacy level in the first language had a significant impact on almost every skill assessed by the Diploma LETRA, except for oral skills; (d) in general, native speakers of Romanian, Balto-slavic and Afroasiatic languages obtained higher scores in most of the sections of the Diploma LETRA; in addition, in the writing section, native speakers of Romanian languages performed significantly higher compared to the other two groups.