ASSESSING SPEAKING

Source: Dr Mary Drossou, Mary (PhD.). RCeL Research Associate

 Today’s Objectives

 To familiarize students with concepts related to the

assessment of speaking

 To distinguish between different types of assessment

 To raise awareness of aspects of speaking task design

 To evaluate an oral test on the basis of an assessment grid

Speaking test: A definition

 A speaking or oral test is defined as a test in which a person is

encouraged to speak, and then assessed on the basis of that
speech. It can be used alone or combined with tests of other
skills (Underhill 1997: 1 & 7).
To make a test:

 You need full local knowledge

 You need to design the test as a whole

 You need a human approach

 You need to find a suitable balance

 You need to adapt and improve

Useful terminology

 Learner • Authentic or
realistic task
 Interviewer
• Objective
 Interlocutor

 Assessor • Stimulus

 Rater • Validity

 Examiner • Reliability
 Communicative
• Moderate
Aims and Resources:

 Aims:
 Proficiency
 Placement
 Diagnosis
 Achievement

 Resources:
 People
 Time
 Equipment and facilities
Assessing speaking skills through:

 Self-assessment

 Classroom based assessment

 Performance assessment through examination

batteries
Types of interaction in speaking tests

A learner speaks:

 To an interviewer who is the assessor

 To an interlocutor, who is not involved in assessment

 To another learner

 To a group of learners

 To a tape recorder and is assessed by one or more

assessors
Marking systems:

 The number of assessors • Rating scales

• Holistic scoring
 The selection and training
• Analytic scoring
of assessors

 Marking recorded oral tests • The role of the assessor –

Classroom assessment
 Mark categories and large-scale
assessment
 Weighting
Views of spoken language and speaking
tests 1

The literary view of spoken language

 First-generation speaking tests(some examples)

 Reciting a poem or speech
 Reading aloud of poetry or prose
 Summarizing or retelling a story
 Discussion of literary texts
 Presentation: prepared lecture, prepared topic

 Limitations of first-generation speaking tests:

 Interactiveness
 Authenticity
 Test security
 Grading / scoring
Views of spoken language and speaking
tests 2

The linguistic view of spoken language

 Second-generation speaking tests (some examples)
 Discrete-point speaking tests
 Grammatical cues
 Functional cues
 Taking one half of a dialogue

 Limitations of second-generation speaking tests:

 Limited scope
 Washback effect
 Washforward effect
 Limited scope
Views of spoken language and speaking
tests 3

The communicative view of spoken language

 Third-generation speaking tests (some examples)

 Interactional short turns
 Interactional long turns
 Transactional short turns
 Transactional long turns
Views of spoken language and speaking
tests 4

 First generation:

pre-scientific - grammar-translation and global tests of

`disembodied’ language
 Second generation:

scientific - audio-lingual approach and discrete-point tests of

individual language points
 Third generation:

post-scientific - communicative approach and realistic tests

of all skills
Speaking tests – Authenticity of task
 Product authenticity

This type of authenticity refers to realism and is most readily

apparent in speaking techniques such as role play or
simulation, which usually create a real-world scenario
 Process authenticity

This refers to communicative authenticity, ie a situation is

created in which some kind of information, opinion or
reasoning gap has to be bridged using spoken language,
regardless of whether such a task would exist in the real
world. .
 Some types of speaking tasks
 Discussion/co • Learner-learner description
nversation and re-creation
 Oral report
• Form-filling
 Learner-
• Question and answer
learner joint
discussion/de
• Reading blank dialogue
cision making

 Role play • Giving

instructions/descriptions/expla
 Interview nation
Some types of speaking tasks – cont.

 Using a picture or a picture • Sentence completion from

story as a cue aural or written stimulus

 Precis or re-tell story or text • Sentence correction

from aural stimulus
• Sentence transformation
 Re-telling a story from written
• Sentence repetition
stimulus
• …
 Reading aloud

 Translating/Interpreting
 Areas of language knowledge (Bachman
and Palmer, 1996:68)
 Organisational knowledge Pragmatic knowledge
(how utterances or sentences and texts are
related to the communicative goals of
(how utterances or sentences and texts are
language users and to the features of the
organised)
language-use setting)

 Grammatical knowledge Functional knowledge

(how utterances or sentences and texts are
(how individual utterances or sentences are related to the communicave goals of language
organised) users)

Knowledge of vocabulary, syntax and Sociolinguistic knowledge(

phonology/graphology (how utterances or sentences and texts are
related to the features of the language-use
 Textual knowledge setting)

Knowledge of dialects /varieties, registers,

(how utterances or sentences are organised
natural or idiomatic expressions, cultural
to form texts)
references and figures of speech

Knowledge of cohesion, rhetorical or

conversational organisation
Task design basic considerations:
 Type of task (controlled, guided, semi- + Post-task evaluation:
guided)

 Topics • Assessing the effectiveness

of the assessment task:
 Time allotment

 Rubrics (or instructions) specify how the • Did the task discriminate
test taker is expected to perform well among the student
 Stimulus material (visuals, multimodal
group?
texts) the stimulus the test taker must
respond to • Were the products easy to
 Expected response:
evaluate?

What the teacher expects students to do • Were students able to speak

with the task
to their potential?