Session 4: ASSESSING SPEAKING MPDP 2010 Session 4: ASSESSING SPEAKING

How much do you know? Take the following quiz to find out how much you know about international, standard oral examinations.

How do you assess Speaking? The way in which you assess speaking should reflect real-life like situations. You need to use the same kinds of activities and tasks during the assessment as you do during the lessons, otherwise you are not assessing what you have taught. Many activities we use in class are perfectly good for the purpose of assessing students, as long as the criteria are clear and the activity fits these.

How are you preparing your students? On a piece of paper I want you to write 5 speaking tasks or activities you carry out in your classes to prepare your students for speaking tests. Choose the one you like the most and tell us about it.

Role Play Student A: You want a ticket to London. You want to know how much it costs. Student B: You work in a train station selling tickets. A ticket to London costs £15 single, £26 return. You want to know when the person wants to travel. The criteria for assessing this activity need to include: Use of the correct functional language e.g. I’d like… Can I have…? How much is a ticket...? Do you want a single or return? etc. The correct appropriacy e.g. Can I have… not I want… or I was wondering if… etc. And, of course, the (successful) completion of the task.

What criteria to use? The criteria we use will depend on the aim of the activity and what exactly we want to assess. If we are assessing how accurately someone speaks, we need to make sure it is clear to everyone taking part. It’s often useful to use a set of criteria for assessing an activity. For example, turn-taking (in pair or group work), apropriacy (in terms of vocabulary and structures used), range of vocabulary and structures (plus whether the range is appropriate), fluency, accuracy and task completion are just some of the criteria that can be used.

In many cases these criteria need to be broken down into more meaningful steps: Apropriacy: the student used the type of language you would naturally find in a train station situation Accuracy: questions were constructed properly, prices were given correctly etc. Task completion: student A bought a ticket to London. Student B gave the correct ticket and found out when the other person was travelling, etc.

Notice Speaking rubrics do not refer to specific grammar or vocabulary items. Overall performance. Functional language.

The KET Oral Exam

How does it work? Two candidates Two examiners

What is being evaluated? Grammar and vocabulary: ability to use vocabulary, structure and paraphrase strategies to convey meaning. Pronunciation: intelligibility of the candidate’s speech. Interactive communication: ability to take part in the interaction appropriately. Global achievement Assesor: mark for each Interlocutor: global mark Rubrics, scales

Practical Activity We are going to simulate a KET interview. 4 volunteers: 2 examiners 2 candidates

What is being evaluated? Grammar and vocabulary Pronunciation Interactive communication Global achievement Assessor: mark for each of the above Interlocutor: global mark – overall performance

How does it work? Two candidates Two examiners

What is being evaluated? Grammar and vocabulary: accurate and appropriate use of grammatical forms and vocabulary. Discourse management: ability to maintain a coherent flow of language. Pronunciation: ability to produce comprehensible utterances to fulfil the task requirements. Interactive communication: ability to use language to achieve meaningful communication. Global achievement Assesor: mark for each Interlocutor: global mark

Part 1: 2-3 minutes Phase 1 A/B Good morning/afternoon/evening. Can I have your mark sheets, please? A/B I´m ………. and this is ………. He/She is just going to listen to us. A Now, what´s your name? Thank you. B And what´s your name?

B What´s your surmane? Thank you. A And what´s your surname? Back-up promots: How do you write your family/second name?

Candidate A goes first Where do you live/come from? Do you work or are you a student in …..? Thank you. Repeated for Candidate B. Back-up prompts: Do you live in …..? Have you got a job? What job do you do? / What subjects do you study?

Phase 2 – Candidate B goes first Examiners select one or more questions from the list to ask each candidate. Do you enjoy studying English? Why (not)? Do you think that English will be useful for you in the future? What did you do yesterday evening/last weekend? What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Thank you.

Part 2: 2-3 minutes Introduction: In the next part, you are going to talk to each other. Say to both candidates: I´m going to describe a situation to you. A friend of yours is planning to spend 6 months in England to improve her English. Talk together about the things she will need in England, and decide which are the most important things to take/bring with her. Hand over Picture Sheet.

I´ll say that again. A friend of yours is planning to spend 6 months in England to improve her English. Talk together about the things she will need in England, and decide which are the most important things to take/bring with her. All right? Talk together. Thank you.

Part 3: 3 minutes Say to both candidates: Now, I´d like each of you to talk on your own about something. I´m going to give each of you a photograph of people reading and writing. Candidate A, here´s your photograph. Please, show it to Candidate B, but I´d like you to talk about it. Candidate B, you´ll just listen. I´ll give you your photograph in a moment. Canadidate A, please tell us what you can see in your photograph. 1 minute. Thank you. Retreive picture from Candidate.

Now, Candidate B, here´s your photograph Now, Candidate B, here´s your photograph. It also shows reading and writing. Please, show it to Candidate A and tell us what you can see in the picture. 1 minute Thank you. Retreive picture from candidate.

Part 4: 3 minutes Say to both candidates: Your photographs showed people reading and writing. Now, I´d like you to talk together about the different kinds of reading and writing you did when you were younger, and the kinds you do now. Thank you. That´s the end of the test.

How does it work? Two candidates Two examiners

What is being evaluated? Grammar and Vocabulary Discourse Management Pronunciation Interactive Communication.

What is being evaluated? Part 1: Interview: abilty to use social and interactional language. Part 2: Long Turn: ability to produce an extended piece of discourse. Part 3: Collaborative Task: ability to engage in a discussion and to work towards a negotiated outcome of the task set. Part 4: Discussion: ability to engage in a discussion based on the topico of the collaborative task.

What else can you do to train your students? In pairs, I want you to think of 2 activities you can start bringing to your classes to prepare your students for oral exams. Choose the one you like the most and tell us about it.

Fluency Fluency (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics) The ability to produce written and / or spoken language with ease Speak with a good but not necessarily perfect command of intonation, vocabulary and grammar Communicate ideas effectively Produce continuous speech without causing comprehension difficulties or a breakdown in communication.

Accuracy Accuracy (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics) Ability to produce grammatically correct sentences May not include the ability to speak or write fluently.

Fluency Fluency in Tasks (Dave Willis, “Accuracy, fluency and conformity” Challenge and Change in Language Teaching, J. Willis and D. Willis, ed. Heinemann, 1996. P. 50) “Learners need opportunities to process language for communicative purposes as receivers and producers. “These opportunities should be unfettered by the perceived need to conform to teacher expectations in terms of the production of specific language forms.”

Accuracy Accuracy in Tasks “Whenever learners are involved in communication they are concerned with accuracy…making the best use of their language systems… “In spontaneous communication [they] have little time to reflect on the language they produce. “ If…they are given time to prepare what they have to produce, there will be a concern for formal accuracy…”

Any final comments or thoughts? Thank you! Happy Teaching! Jimena Lizalde jlizalde@grupomacmillan.com

INTERLOCUTOR

ASSESSOR

CANDIDATE B

CANDIDATE A