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New Informal Assessments For Speaking Skill
New informal assessments for speaking skill
As an English language learner, if you ask any teacher about the best way to learn the language, the majority of them would have a consensus over the importance of speaking activities and tasks. However, when it comes to teaching in an educational context, the speaking skill would seem to be the most ignored and under-estimated compared to the other skills. Teaching a language is not just loading the students’ minds with a number of theories or rules (that are often full of clashes, confusion and exceptions). It is rather teaching them how to interact with people who speak the language and how to put what they have learned into practice. Practicing the language is actually the main keyword as far as learning languages is concerned.
According to the old system we had in the Language Centre (LC) in 1997, speaking was not really given much emphasis due to the fact that it was not included in the overall assessment. Assessing speaking might have been referred to as assessing participation in the class activities (and assigned 2 marks out of the total grade which was 100) but there was no testing events included for it (be they formal or informal test). It was only after the new (current) system was adopted in 2000 that the assessment of speaking skill has become a must. Ever since, assessing speaking has taken different formats (prepared presentations, informal chatting with the teacher…etc) till it has reached its current shape. The present format of the speaking test in level 6 (the Exit level), has evolved from its first inclusion in the End-of-block in Fall 2000 and the reason for its inclusion was to provide students with a more comprehensive exposure to and practice with all the major language skills, particularly speaking.
In this paper, I will present some new informal assessment tools and rubrics I have specifically designed to assess the speaking skill in my own context (at level 6 which is the Exit level) and these are an informal speaking test and a presentation. A brief description of the situation (learning methods, students’ abilities, available resources…etc) will be given so as to provide a rationale for the newly designed tools. Moreover, some samples of assessment criteria and rubrics will be provided and explained. Finally, recommendations about the use of these kinds of assessment will be highlighted so as to enable other teachers (who are interested in using these tools) to use them properly.
1. Learning Goals
For us to understand the efficiency of the new informal assessments and to come up with evaluative or judgmental thoughts about them, it would really be good to go over both, the objectives of these informal assessments and the general objectives of teaching speaking claimed by the Intensive English Language Program (IELP) in the Language Centre. According to the IELP curriculum document, there is a number of general objectives for the teaching of speaking skills in the Language Centre. At the end of the IELP, students will be able to do the following:
# Pronounce unknown words using the phonemic transcriptions prescribed dictionary.
# Produce appropriate stress/ intonation patterns that contribute to the communicative effect of the utterance.
# Use social communication formula in everyday classroom setting (examples determined by learning materials and program coordinators (PCs).
# Use appropriate classroom language for questions, clarifications, suggestions…etc.
# Initiate, maintain and close a conversation of an academic nature.
# Express and ask for opinion in academic context.
# Express agreement/disagreement, giving supporting reasons, in academic contexts.
# Present a talk of an academic nature lasting up to 8 minutes using own notes and aids.
Based on the above mentioned information, I have designed two informal assessments each of which has objectives that match with and help to fulfill the general objectives of IELP. These assessments are:
A. An informal speaking test: it consists of two parts one of which requires students to describe a picture and the other one requires them to speak on a given topic. Part one will assess the students’ ability to improvise and produce organized connected speech. Students will be expected to go beyond a mere description and or narration. They will describe, give detailed information, give reasons, talk on one’s point of view and agree or disagree on the topic or situation shown by the picture. The facilitator (one of the testers) will use prompts to stimulate the student to express opinion and speculate. Part two on the other hand, will assess the students’ ability to speak on a given topic expressing their points of view while interacting with a student or teacher partner answering and in turn asking questions. The teacher/student partner will need to ask questions from the main speaker and the speaker in turn is able to respond suitably to the questions. In short, interaction will be encouraged during this part. In this level (level 6), the students will be assessed in pairs, that is, two candidates will be assessed by two teachers. (A brief summary on how these two tests are conducted will be given later in section 3).
B. A presentation: it is based on data obtained from out of class reading, or from a questionnaire, or from other sources. (The sources must be provided, and the presentation should have substantial written notes to support the talk. In other words, a quick stand-up talk on something rather cursorily prepared will not suffice). This component has to be taken seriously and students should realize that poor quality or rushed work that does not meet the defined criteria will be given a low mark. The mark for this component should reflect the amount of individual effort they put into their studies or research.
Teachers should check with previous class teachers, or with the student profile, to see what students have done in previous courses so that there is no repetition of either content or of a task, i.e. at each level, the students should work on a different kind of task.
2. Setting/Scene
At present, the main delivery mode for our courses is the conventional classroom setting, with one teacher and around 25 students. Students have 20 contact hours per week in this setting, 4 hours per day. In addition, they are expected to work on their own, making use of computer labs, of teachers’ office hours (every teacher has 10 office hours per week), the reading room resources (which contains so many sets of stories, novels, books, audio and video materials), and carrying out the normal assignment tasks set by the teachers. With an increasing use of computer-delivered learning materials and accompanying tasks, accessed by students from a range of venues around campus or outside, this pattern may well change. Also, with varying class size according to the type of language skills being practiced, for example smaller groups for speaking and writing skills, this dominant learning will no doubt change. Also, since the kind of approaches adopted in the language Centre are communicative in nature, more emphasis has been given to the teaching of speaking skills. It is assigned 4 hours per week plus the fact that it is integrated in the teaching of all the other skills i.e. in reading, writing and listening, there is always some time allocated for discussions be they free, guided or controlled.
Also, at the present, teachers and students alike have classroom contact for four hours per day. In this context, I would like to stress the following aspects of teaching/ learning complex:
Motivation: Students are motivated by a range of factors, some internal and some external, but it is clear that the teacher, and the way that s/he presents learning materials to the class, encourages practice and study and provides personal support and encouragement to individuals, can have an influence on the motivation of students. A common complaint from students is that lessons or the materials are “boring”, which may be a cover for all kinds of hidden emotions and attitudes, but which teachers need to be aware of. Members of the Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) have tried to select materials which are stimulating to the students and which generally widen their knowledge horizons as well as develop their English language skills, but it is not possible to ensure that all students have the same level of interest. Therefore, the teachers have a certain responsibility to try and maintain a level of student interest and to provide sufficient variety in their lessons and procedures to help sustain motivation in the classroom.
Variety: As indicated above, teachers are encouraged to provide variety in the classroom, of activity types, of modes of presentation, of informal assessment procedures, of extra support materials, and so on, to maintain interest and to stimulate students. Teachers are also encouraged to share their teaching ideas with colleagues and with their line manager to continually develop the curriculum.
Differences in levels: Generally speaking, the lower the level of competence of the students, the more they need the presence and support of the teacher. Thus, teachers at lower levels are expected to create an active, positive classroom, with variety of activity, o f learning mode, and of skill focus, whereas at the higher levels (like in level 6), lessons may be more focused on one skill and would possibly spend more time on students’ individual work. Students at the lower levels need to develop all skills, but there will be an emphasis on communication skills and on confidence-building in English. In general, students in level 6 are advanced users of the language and they are about to exit the IELP and start their studies in their respective colleges where English language is the medium of instructions.
Methodology: Levels 5 and 6 (the last two levels in the IELP) can be considered as a continuum, in that all students will do both courses and the emphasis is predominantly on developing language and communication skills, rather than language per se. Level 6 also sees the introduction of more listening and reading texts related to the four main content areas of Science, Medicine, Commerce and English. Teachers will still need to provide occasional input lessons on points of grammar that the students either don’t know or having particular problems with. Their writing will also reveal areas of weakness in grammar which will need to be reinforced.
The textbook provided, especially in terms of reading and speaking, are bare minimum, and the expectation is that students should be provided with considerably more speaking and reading materials ranging from readers to articles from newspapers or journals or internet sources.
This level (6) also sees the continuation of the process begun in level 5, whereby students are encouraged to take on more responsibility for their own learning. This is apparent not just from easily observable and measurable features such as organized files of paper, and a continuing portfolio of their work, including independent study work, but, I hope, in their attitudes and in their readiness to undertake assignments and homework tasks, as well as in their attempts to maximize learning opportunities available to them. I don’t want to be too idealistic and have unrealistic expectations of student behavior, but they do need encouragement of teachers to develop and improve their learning. Students leaving this level are deemed to be ‘ready’ for academic study in English, and although we all in the Language Centre feel that their linguistic level is not as high as everyone would like, it is our responsibility to do what we can to help the students acquire the relevant study skills and attitudes that they will need. This should be an accumulative process, so that it is not just something they learn in their final level of English.
3. Description of the Two Assessments
A very brief description of the two assessments and what kind of abilities they are meant to measure has been given in section 3. Providing a description of the assessments only will not really give a comprehensive view about them. However, describing how each of the assessment is carried out would be of a great help especially if someone becomes interested in replicating these assessments in his/her own context. In this section, a detailed description of how the informal speaking test is conducted would be highlighted. As for the presentation, a brief description would be provided due to the fact that it is very simple and straight forward. It also does not involve so many procedures like the informal test and it is marked by one teacher only (the one who teaches the core subject).
A. The Informal Speaking Test
Candidates will be tested in pairs at level 6. Two teachers will be involved in the process of assessment. The class teacher is the facilitator and will use the pictures and the topics to facilitate the students to speak. The facilitator will also assess the students. The second teacher (who does not teach the class and whose main job is not to interact but to listen to students throughout the test) will be the Main Assessor or Marker. Marks will be entered for each candidate separately by the two teachers, and in case of discrepancies an agreement will be reached immediately after each candidate or pair is tested. The Main Marker will decide on the final agreed mark. Test one will start with some introductory questions.
Examiners should introduce themselves using their first name and get to know the first names of the candidates. They should make sure that the names of the candidate/s and ID number printed on the mark sheet match each other. Students are not marked here but the examiners will listen carefully to the students).
The facilitator will hand the picture to the student and will give a minute to prepare. The pictures will be numbered and given to the students in order, starting from the first. The facilitator will use the cues on the card, only if necessary, to stimulate a student to speak if the language produced by the students is not sufficient to allocate a mark. In this level (6), the student is expected to speak sufficiently to communicate to the student partner the topic or the situation shown in the picture. After about a minute, the second student has to express his/her opinion agreeing or disagreeing with what the partner expressed, using about twenty seconds.
The facilitator will use a prompt only if the examiners feel that they are unable to allocate a mark or if s/he feels that the candidate is capable of producing more complex language with the help of prompts. As each student finishes speaking, both the facilitator and the main marker will write down the scores in the mark sheets using the Criteria (see section 4). They have to agree on a mark before the next pair of students is called in for the test.
Students will be tested in pairs. The facilitator will give the topic to the first student and then give 30 seconds preparation time and ask the students to speak to each other on the topic. The student who has the topic will speak for about a minute and the second student will ask questions on issues raised in the topic. The first speaker will respond appropriately to the questions.
Once sufficient interaction has taken place to assess the first speaker, the next topic will be given to the second student. The procedure will be repeated. Once both students have completed their tests, the marker can fine tune the scores and write the marks down using the criteria. The facilitator should make sure that the student who spoke second in Test 1 is given the topic for Test 2, first.
B. Presentation
All students in level 6 are required to give a prepared talk of 8 minutes in front of all the class. It is the Testing Unit’s responsibility to assign a number of topics for each class (most of the topics are scientific, commercial, or artistic in nature depending on the program they would be used in). Then, it is the teacher who is to arrange the distribution of these topics on his/her students (by allowing them to choose and/or by assigning the topics him/herself). Students are usually given their topics by the end of week 1 (each level lasts for 8 weeks) so as to allow them enough time to search for information related to their topics and to prepare themselves physically and psychologically for the presentation. They are expected to work on their presentation for 5 weeks and part of the job is seeing the teacher, consulting him/her and asking for help and/or advice. Students are encouraged to work together, cooperate and comment on each other’s work. They are also asked to rehearse their presentations in front of their colleagues outside of the classroom.
The mark of the presentation is split into two halves one of which is allocated for the preparation (collecting the information, organizing the facts, preparing the outlines, preparing the OHTs…etc) and the other is allocated for the actual presentation and these two marks are given separately (one before the presentation and the other after). This is done to ensure that students take the presentation seriously and feel they are under some pressure to finish the work on time and to meet the expectations and the requirements of the presentations (students are provided with a very detailed explanation of what the presentation should look like, what they are expected to do, the marking criteria and rubrics, and also some guidelines on how to do a good presentation. Moreover, students are provided with some video-taped sample presentations which are accessible on line). Finally, students give their presentations individually and they are marked according their performance. (For more information on the assessment of the presentation, see section 4).
4. Samples of the Rubrics and Assessment Criteria
This section provides some samples of the assessment criteria and rubrics for the two informal assessments that have been explained in the previous sections.
A. Assessment criteria for the Informal Speaking Test
These are based on the 5 points under Delivery on the Assessment Sheet above
Level 6 Guidelines for the Oral Delivery:
Each student should enjoy giving their talk, keep a good pace, be clear, and make eye contact with the class.
1. Overall Organization:
# Students should feel comfortable using the OHP; they should decide where they are going to stand and where they are going to prompt cards and transparencies.
# The introduction and progression of the talk must be clear.
# If the student asks questions during the actual talk, s/he must know when to stop the interruption and draw attention back to the talk itself.
# The pace is decided by the above points and, in fact, by all the points under Delivery on the assessment sheet in the previous page.
# Students should aim to speak within the time limit. Ideal timing is 8 minutes. But student must aim to speak for between 7 mins 30 secs and 9 mins. Presentations that are shorter than 7 mins 30 secs and longer than 9 mins will have a reduced mark.
2. Fluency:
Memorization is common practice. It can affect the pace and clarity of the talk. However, these problems can be avoided:
# Students should make an effort to speak normally i.e. clearly and with expression, and also make good eye contact.
# A good outline functions as memory aid and so cue cards.
# Reading is not acceptable because it allows the class to lose interest in the talk and reading does not represent a presentation.
# Hesitation is one effect of nervousness. Students should practice their presentation several times before the day of the presentation to avoid this problem.
3. Clarity of speech and expression:
# It is very important to speak to the audience. You are telling them something, which is important to you: speak slowly and with expression, and keep eye contact.
4. Language Use:
Students should try to use language as accurately as possible. However, the main aim should be to communicate clearly so that the audience can understand and follow the presentation.
5. Class involvement:
Students should try to present their topic in a confident manner. This means keeping the audience’s interest. One way of doing this is to be attentive to all of the audience.
5. My reflection
It is really difficult to make judgments about a plan until it has been piloted and tested. The results of the implementation will provide a clear idea of whether the plan was good or not for the particular reason it was designed for. It will also highlight some of the problems and the weak areas that need to be worked on or considered in a later implementation. As a pre-judgmental statement about my plan, I would say that I am happy with it (May be with the way it looksJ). I have tried my best to incorporate most of the speaking goals into my assessment plan. I have also made use of the previous system in that I looked at the problems that existed there and tried to avoid them and/or find some possible solutions for them. Communicative approach has been considered in the new assessment plans in that the topics and the photos used in the speaking tests are actually from the students’ daily life and/or they are related to the their field of study (Majors). Moreover, the presentation does not only integrate the speaking skill in all the other subjects taught in the course (because students keep talking and discussing their presentations with their colleagues all the time), but it also extends the use of this skill (speaking) to the outside of the classroom and even into the students’ free time.
I still believe however that there is no perfect plan and there is always space for improvement. Teachers and colleagues can use this plan, comment on it and even modify it to suit their own purposes and contexts. I would really appreciate any sort of comments, additions, or modifications provided by my colleagues because as a single designer of the instrument, it would really be impossible for me to look at it from different angles and to consider the different aspects of assessment involved. However, involving my colleagues would provide a more comprehensive judgment that would, for sure, contribute to the development of this plan. As for the implantation of the two assessments, teachers would be provided with detailed instructions on how to conduct the test and that would eliminate any kind of confusion and would familiarize them with it.
References:
1. IELP Curriculum Document Book, The Language Centre, Sultan Qaboos University
About the Author
Rashid Al Maamari
BA in English for English Specialists from Sultan Qaboos University (2001)
MA in ESP from the University of Warwick (2003)
Teaching English Language in the Language Centre at Sultan Qaboos University since 2001
Office Tel: +968 24142854
Mobile: +968 99378100
E-mail: rashidm@squ.edu.om
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