Презентация на тему Assessing Speaking

Speaking as a skill and subskills
Types of oral

production
Testing techniques and scoring of oral productions
Special considerations for speaking tests

curricula, esp. in communicative LT
if we teach communication

skills, they should be assessed
Speaking is part of life
English is a global language
Need to promote clear intercultural communications

Valuing communication over knowledge about the language
Achieving communicative

goals effectively
Placing individuals in appropriate training or jobs
Performing work related tasks safely
Acquiring competence in educational contexts
Giving learners a sense of achievement
Motivating further learning
Providing useful feedback on learning

challenges:
What exactly is the construct of speaking?

Can we separate speaking from listening and reading comprehension?
Practical challenges:
How to evaluate? How to score?
How to elicit desired response?
How to make testing fair, regardless of a TT’s and SS’s personality, social skills, culture etc.?
How to decrease time- and work-intensiveness both for T and TTs?

skill (Harris, 1977)
Pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, purpose, fluency and

comprehension
Canale and Swan (1980) - four competencies underlying speaking ability:
Grammatical competence
Discourse competence
Sociolinguistic competence
Strategic competence

routines
Exchanging information
Provide personal information, give instructions, narrate a story,

describe something
Interacting
Telephoning, buying and selling, requests, interviews, expressing opinions, making suggestions

Improvisational skills
Negotiating meaning
Indicating purpose, checking understanding, express dis/agreement, seeking clarification
Managing interaction
Initiating & sustaining, changing topics, turn-taking, concluding a discussion

of speech
Stress
Reduced forms
Meaning and grammar
Fluency
Cohesion
Macro-skills
Language functions
Style and register,

implied meaning, literal/non-literal meanings
Conversation rules
Use non-verbal cues to enhance the message
Employ speaking strategies

Can take two forms:
Transactional language: to exchange specific information
Interpersonal

exchanges: social exchanges and relationships
Some of the techniques commonly used include interviews, role plays, discussions, games

a protocol of questions and directives
Interviews can vary in

length, depending on their purpose:
Placement interview
Comprehensive interview
A variation is to place two test-takers during one interview
Scoring: accuracy in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary usage, fluency, sociolinguistic/pragmatic appropriateness, task accomplishment, and even comprehension
Scoring facilitated by recording the interview.

teaching classes.
Controlled or ‘’guided’’ by the interviewer
Scoring: presents

the usual complications as any task that elicits somewhat unpredictable responses from test-takers.

even more difficult to score.
Offer a level of

authenticity and spontaneity that other assessment techniques may not provide
Scoring: checklists should be carefully designed to suit the objectives of the observed discussion

specially appropriate tasks through which to elicit and observe

such abilities as:

Variations on monologues, an interlocutor’s role is limited or

none
Some of the most commonly used techniques include:
Speeches and oral presentations
Pictured cued story-telling
Retelling a story or news event
Translation (of extended prose)

paper, a marketing plan, a sales idea, a design

of new product, or a method.
Scoring: checklist and grid are common means of scoring these tasks. Specify the criterion clearly
Set appropriate tasks
Carefully elicit optimal output
Establish practical, reliable scoring procedures

Some of the stimuli used include:
Pictures
Photographs
Diagrams
Charts
Series of pictures
for longer

descriptions

test-takers hear or read a story or news event

that they are asked to retell.
Aspects evaluated: communicating sequences and relationships of events, stress and emphasis patterns, ’’expression’’ in the case of a dramatic story, fluency, and interaction with the hearer.

it
Think about:
The type of English program
The target language skill

for the students
The materials and class activities
Will Ss be familiar with the topics and tasks?
The teaching approach
CLT emphasizes genuine reasons for communication

test should match your program’s objectives
Within the subskills, sample

a broad range using several speaking tasks
Broad sampling increases reliability
In real life, speaking occurs interactively in real time; simulate these conditions
Make tasks plausible, on familiar topics

2 : 2
Even with pairs, can test individuals

Teachers have different roles:
Interlocutor interacts with students and works from script
Assessor tracks and rates performance; stay in background
How many tasks?
Sample range, provide multiple chances
Types of prompts
Use graphics, avoid excessive reading

subskills?
Communication of meaning
Comprehension
Appropriateness, relevance
Fluency: response

time, sustains speech
Accuracy: grammar doesn’t interfere
Vocabulary: appropriate to topic, level
Pronunciation: accent, stress, intonation
Intelligibility without effort

Holistic
Use a banding scheme
Assign 1 overall mark based

on impression
Advantage= quick
May influence reliability

Analytic
Assess each criterion separately
Allows for different weighting, different subskill development

Hybrid systems are possible. Whichever system you adopt, promote inter-rater reliability with training and moderation.
Use CEFR and other scales!