LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT : Testing Oral Ability

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Testing Oral Ability

 by:

Joko Supriyanto

In testing communicative competence, speaking and listening tasks are commonly used. But we will focus only on testing speaking ability as our concern in this topic. There is a possible problem that appear in testing oral ability. The difficulty discussed here is that speaking and listening skills are very much related to each other; it is difficult to separate them. In most cases, there is an interchange between listening and speaking, and speaking appropriately depends on comprehending spoken input. Therefore, this has an impact on testing speaking because the testers will not know whether they are testing purely speaking or speaking and listening together.

In testing oral proficiency, or oral skills of second language learning, four components are emphasised. These include: Vocabulary, Grammar, Semantics, and Phonology. Accurate assessment of limited-English speaking learners requires a total description of the communication skills, linguistic structures, and functional usage of the learner’s language within all social domains (Silverman, Noa, & Russel, 1977).

To test student’s oral ability, there three techniques can be used :

1.       Interview

This technique involves some points below to get a good interview :

·         Questions and request for information : it is intended that the performance of various operations can be elicited. It is presented in some ways such as, Requests for elaboration: “What exactly do you mean?”; appearing not to understand : The interviewer may say, for example, “I’m sorry, but I don’t quite follow you.”;  Invitation to ask questions: “Is there anything you’d like to ask me?”; Interruption: To see how the candidate deals with this; Abrupt change of topic: To see how the candidate deals with this.

·         Pictures : Single pictures are particularly useful for eliciting descriptions. Series of pictures form a natural basis for narration.

·         Role Play : Candidates can be asked to assume a role in a particular situation. This allows the ready elicitation of other language functions.

·         Interpreting : It is not intended that candidates should be able to act as interpreters (unless that is specified). The native language speaker wants to invite a foreign visitor to  his or her home for a meal. The candidate has to convey the invitation and act as an interpreter for the subsequent exchange.

·         Prepared monologue: it is intended to facilitate the candidates to show the performance by presenting the monologue prepared. The ability to make presentations is an objective of the course.

·         Reading aloud

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2.      Interaction with fellow candidates

An advantage of having candidates interacting with each other is that it should elicit language that is appropriate to exchanges between two candidates. The useful techniques are: discussion and Role Play between two candidates while the tester become the observer.

3.      responses to audio- or video-recorded stimuli

Elicitation procedures can be achieved through presenting all candidates with the same computer generated or audio-/video-recorded stimuli (to which the candidates themselves respond into a microphone).

Plan and structure the testing carefully!

1.      Make the oral test as long as possible. To get reliable information, it is better to have 30 minutes long of the test.

2.      Plan the test carefully by procedures can be adapted in response to a candidate’s performance, the tester should nevertheless have some pattern to follow.

3.      Give the candidate as many ‘fresh starts’ as possible

4.      Use a second tester for interviews.

5.      Set only tasks and topics that would be expected to cause candidates no difficulty in their own language.

6.      Carry out the interview in a quiet room with good acoustics.

7.      Put candidates at their ease so that they can show what they are capable of.

8.      Collect enough relevant information.

9.      Do not talk too much. There is an unfortunate tendency for interviewers to talk too much, not giving enough talking time to candidates.

10.  Select interviewers carefully and train them.

Stages in conducting interview

Stage 1 : Background and overview, trainees are given background on the interview.

Stage 2 : Assigning candidates to levels, trainees are asked to write down the levels to which they assign the candidate according to the level descriptions

Stage 3 : Conducting interviews

Stage 4 : Assessment

Scoring

Accuracy :                              Pronunciation must be clearly intelligible even if some influences from L1 remain. Grammatical/lexical accuracy is high though grammatical errors which do not impede communication are acceptable.

Appropriacy :                        The use of language must be generally appropriate to function and to context. The intention of the speaker must be clear and unambiguous.

Range :                                   A wide range of language must be available to the candidate. Any specific items which cause difficulties can be smoothly substituted or avoided.

Flexibility :                             There must be consistent evidence of the ability to ‘turn-take’ in a conversation and to adapt to new topics or changes of direction.

Size :                                       Must be capable of making lengthy and complex contributions where appropriate. Should be able to expand and develop ideas with minimal help from the Interlocutor.

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Testing for language teachers

Richards, J. dan Renandya, W. 2002. Methodology in language teaching. Cambridge: CUP