What is Cambridge English Language Certificates

This chapter presents the results of a study conducted in a language classroom in Galicia (Spain). The course was sponsored by the local administration and addressed to unemployed students (n = 14; average age 47). The education in foreign languages of the participants in the ‘80s and ‘90s had been held back due to curricular needs to promote the use of the second official language, Galician. The extrinsic motivation for English language learning of the participants was their need to improve linguistic skills to re-gain access to the job market. It was observed that they were consistently underperforming during writing exam preparation tasks. In order to meet the needs of these students, it was decided to study the impact that the explanation of the assessment rubric had on learners' written production. Results of their performance in a pre-test were compared to the results in a post-test. The implementation of this strategy proved to be effective. By allowing the students to have knowledge of the rubric for the assessment of their writings, their fear was significantly reduced.