Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 31

Language Assessment

Testing Speaking
Israel R. Asinas, III-English

What? When?
Where? Who?

Basic Types of Speaking

Imitative. It is simply the ability to parrot


back a word or phrase or a sentence.
Intensive. It is the production of short
stretches of oral language. Examples
include directed response tasks, reading
aloud, sentence and dialogue completion,
limited picture-cued tasks.

Basic Types of Speaking

Responsive. The tasks include interaction and


test comprehension but at the limited level of
short conversations, standard greetings, small
talk, requests, and comments.
Interactive. The length and complexity of the
interaction are more in interactive tasks than in
responsive ones. The task sometimes includes
multiple exchanges and/or multiple participants.

Basic Types of Speaking

Extensive. (monologue) The tasks include


speeches, oral presentations, and storytelling. Oral interaction from listeners is
either highly limited or ruled out
altogether.

Imitative Speaking

Word repetition task


Test-takers hear:
beat/bit bat/vat
I bought a boat yesterday.
The glow of the candle is growing.
Test-takers repeat the stimulus.

Scoring scale for repetition tasks

2
1
0

acceptable pronunciation.
comprehensible, partially correct.
silence, seriously incorrect.

Intensive Speaking

Directed Response Tasks


Directed response
Tell me he went home.
Tell me that you like rock music.
Tell me that you arent interested in
tennis.
Tell him to come to my office at noon.
Remind him what time it is.

Test of Spoken English Scoring


Scale (Read-Aloud Tasks)
Pronunciation:
Points:
0.00.4 frequent errors and unintelligible.
0.51.4 occasionally unintelligible.
1.52.4 some errors but intelligible.
2.53.0 occasional errors but always

intelligible.

Fluency:
Points:
0.0 0.4 slow, hesitant, and unintelligible.
0.5 1.4 non-native pauses and flow that

interferes with intelligibility.


1.5--2.4 non-native pauses but the flow is

intelligible.
2.53.0 smooth and effortless.

Variations on Read-Aloud tasks

Reading a scripted dialogue.


Reading sentences containing minimal
pairs.
Examples: Try not to heat/ hit the pan too
much.
Reading information from a table or chart.

Sentence/Dialogue Completion
Tasks and Oral Questionnaires

First, test-takers are given time to read


through the dialogue to get its gist, then the
tape/teacher produces one part orally and
the test-taker responds.

Advantage: more time to anticipate an


answer, no potential ambiguity created by
aural misunderstanding (oral interview).

Picture-Cued Tasks
A picture-cued stimulus requires a
description from the test-taker. It may elicit
a word, a phrase, a story, or incident.
Scoring scale for intensive tasks:
2 comprehensible; acceptable target form
1 comprehensible; partially correct
0 silence; or seriously incorrect

A Scale for Evaluating Interviews

Grammar
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Fluency
Pronunciation
Task (the objective of the elicited task)

Responsive Speaking
Question and Answer
Examples:
1. What is this called in English? ( to elicit
a predetermined correct response)
2. What are the steps governments should
take, if any, to stem the rate of deforestation in tropical countries? ( given
more opportunity to produce meaningful
language in response)

Questions Eliciting Open-Ended


Responses
1. What do you think about the weather today?
2. Why did you choose your academic major?
3. a. Have you ever been to the Baguio before?
b. What other places have you visited?
c. Why did you go there? What did you
like best about it?

Giving Instructions & Directions


Examples: how to operate an appliance, how
to put a bookshelf together, or how to
create a dish.
Scoring: based on
(1) comprehensibility
(2) Specified grammatical/discourse
categories.

Eliciting Instructions or Directions

Test-takers hear:
-Describe how to make a typical dish
-Whats a good recipe for making _____?
-How do you access email on a PC
computer?
-How do I get from ___ to ____ in your
city?
Test-takers respond.

Interactive Speaking

Oral Interview: a test administrator and a


test-taker sit down in a direct face-to-face
exchange and proceed through a protocol
of questions and directives.

Sample Questions of an Oral


Interview
1. Warm-up:
How are you?/Whats your name?/What
country are you from?/Let me tell your about
this interview.
2. Level check:
How long have you been in this city?/tell me
about your family./What is your major?/How
long have you been working at your
degree?/What are your hobbies or
interests?/Why do you like your hobby?

What is your favorite food?/Tell me about your


exciting experience youve had.
3. Probe:
What are your goals for learning English in this
program?/Describe your academic field to me.
What do you like or dislike about it?/Describe
someone you greatly respect, and tell me why you
respect that person./If you were [president, prime
minister] of your country, what would you like to
change about your country?

4. Wind-down:
Did you feel okay about this
interview?/Youll get your results from this
interview next week./Do you have any
question to ask?/It was interesting to talk
with you. Best wishes.

Role Play

It is a popular pedagogical activity in


communicative language-teaching classes.
The test administrator must determine the
assessment objectives of the role play, then devise a
scoring technique that pinpoints those objectives.
Examples: Pretend that youre a tourist asking me
for directions, You are buying a necklace from me
in a flea market, and want a lower price.

Discussions & Conversations

As informal techniques to assess learners, D & C


offer a level of authenticity and spontaneity that
other assessment techniques may not provide.
(clarifying, questioning, paraphrasing, intonation
patterns, body language, eye contact, and other
sociolinguistic factors)
Games

Extensive Speaking
Extensive speaking tasks are frequently
variations on monologues, usually with
minimal verbal interaction.
Oral Presentations:
Examples: presenting a report, a paper, a
marketing plan, a sales idea, a design of a
new product, or a method.

Rules for effective assessment:


(a) specify the criterion,
(b) set appropriate tasks,
(c) Elicit optimal output, and
(d) establish practical, reliable scoring procedures.

Oral presentation checklist


3 excellent 2 good 1 fair 0 poor

Content:
The purpose or objective of the presentation was accomplished.
The introduction was lively and got my attention.
The main idea or point was clearly stated toward the beginning.

The supporting points were clearly expressed and


supported well by facts and argument.
The conclusion restated the main idea or purpose.
Delivery
The speaker used gestures and body language
well.
The speaker maintained eye contact with the
audience.
The speakers language was natural and fluent.
The volume of speech was appropriate.

The rate of speech was appropriate.


The pronunciation was clear and
comprehensible.
The grammar was correct and didnt prevent
understanding.
Used visual aids, handouts, etc., effectively.
Showed enthusiasm and interest.
Responded to audience questions well.

Picture-Cued Story-Telling

At this level, a picture/a series of pictures is used


as a stimulus for a longer story or description.
The objective of eliciting narrative discourse
needs to be clear.
For example, are you testing for oral vocabulary,
(girl, telephone, wet) for time relatives (before,
after, when), for sentence connectors (then, so),
for past tense of irregular verbs (woke, drank,
rang), or for fluency in general?
Criteria for scoring need to be clear.

Retelling a Story, News Event

Test-takers hear /read a story or news event


that they are asked to retell.
It differs from the paraphrasing task
discussed above in that it is a longer stretch
of discourse and a different genre.

Thank You!

Israel R. Asinas
III-English

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi