Current scene of the main Spanish and Portuguese proficiency certifications in the Ibero-American area

Abstract

This study analyzes the most important Spanish and Portuguese proficiency certifications in the Ibero-american area (DELE, CELU, CELA, SIELE, CELPE-Bras, and caple system) from the lottopolitical perspective. Taking as a framework the development of language area policies around these languages, that is, the so-called “Hispanophony” and “Lusophony”, as well as the most recent project of “Iberophony” (or “Pan-Iberianism”), which have in common a political intention of constituting a homogeneous space with a linguistic-cultural base that assures the expansion of global markets, the paper attempts to explore, based on a bibliographical and documentary review, regularities and contrasts between the different certification proposals and the relationships of forces that are deployed in this field, taking into account the incidence of requirements and transformations of greater scope both at the national, regional and global scales.