Always keeping the cornerstones of good assessment in mind, why do we want to test speaking? In a general English program, speaking is an important channel of communication in daily life. We want to simulate real-life situations in which students engage in conversation, ask and answer questions, and give information. In an academic English program, the emphasis might be on participating in class discussions and debates or giving academic presentations. In a Business English course, students might develop telephone skills, interact in a number of common situations involving meetings, travel, and sales as well as make reports. Whatever the teaching focus, valid assessment should reflect the course objectives and the eventual target language.
Speaking is a productive language skill like writing and thus shares many issues such as whether to grade holistically or analytically. However, unlike writing, speaking is more ephemeral unless measures are taken to record student performance. Yet the presence of recording equipment can inhibit students and often recording is not practical or feasible. To score reliably, it is often necessary to have two teachers assess together. When this happens, one is the interlocutor who interacts with the speaker(s) while the other teacher, the assessor, tracks the student’s performance.
Based on Bygate’s categories, Weir (1993) divides oral skills into two main groups: speaking skills that are part of a repertoire of routines for exchanging information or interacting, and improvisational skills such as negotiating meaning and managing the interaction. The routine skills are largely associated with language functions and the spoken language required in certain situations. By contrast, the improvisational skills are more general and may be brought into play at any time for clarification, to keep a conversation flowing, to change topics or to take turns. In circumstances when presentation skills form an important component of a program, naturally they should be assessed. However, avoid situations where a student simply memorizes a prepared speech. Decide which speaking skills are most germane to a particular program and then create assessment tasks that sample skills widely with a variety of tasks.
While it is possible to assess speaking skills on an individual basis, most large exam boards opt to test pairs of students with pairs of testers. Within tests organized in this way, there are times when only one student speaks and other times when the students interact in a conversation. This setup makes it possible to test common routine functions as well as a range of improvisational skills. For reliability, interlocutors should work from a script so that all students get similar questions framed in the same way. In general, the teacher or interlocutor should keep in the background and only intercede if truly necessary.
Common speaking assessment formats
It is good practice to start the speaking assessment with a simple task that puts students at ease so they perform better. Often this takes the form of asking the students for some personal information.
Interview: can be teacher to student or student to student. Teacher to student is more reliable when the questions are scripted.
Description of a photograph or item: Students describe what they see.
Narration: This is often an elaboration of a description. The student is given a series of pictures or cartoon strip for the major events in a story.
Information gap activity: One student has information the other lacks and vice versa. Students have to exchange information to see how it fits together.
Negotiation task: Students work together on a task where they may have different opinions. They have to reach a conclusion in a limited period of time.
Roleplays: Students are given cue cards with information about their “character” and the setting. Some students find it difficult to project themselves into an imaginary situation and this lack of “acting ability” may affect reliability.
Oral presentations: Strive to make them impromtu instead of rehearsed.
Recommendations for Speaking Assessment
Decide with your colleagues which speaking subskills are most important and adopt a grading scale that fits your program. Whether you adopt a holistic or analytical approach to grading, create a recording form that enables you to track students’ production and later give feedback for improvement.
Think about these factors: fluency vs. accuracy, appropriate responses (indicating comprehension), pronunciation, accent and intonation, use of repair strategies.
Train teachers in scoring and practice together until there is a high rate of inter-rater reliablity. Use moderation sessions with high-stakes exams.
Keep skill contamination in mind. Don’t give students lengthy written instructions which must be read and understood before speaking.
Remember that larger samples of language are more reliable. Make sure that students speak long enough on a variety of tasks.
Choose tasks that generate positive washback for teaching and learning!
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