Assessing Speaking

Among the macro skills of language, it has been widely recognized that speaking, particularly in a second or foreign language, is the most difficult language skill to assess. The various directions and foci in the testing of speaking abilities of learners frequently lack solid grounding on theory and pedagogy and reliable test designs (Pennington, 1999; Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996). This is due, for the most part, to the difficult matching of the testing goals and the appropriate instruments and tasks for assessment. Speaking as a major construct for testing is likewise divided into different criteria with highly diverse applications. The testing of pronunciation (both segmentals and suprasegmentals), spoken grammar, spoken vocabulary, and even sociolinguistic applications of speech all fall into the construct of speaking but largely require discrete test designs and measures. This is a challenge for classroom teachers and researchers of learners’ speaking abilities. Knowing what to test specifically and how to conduct the testing process require applicable theories and valid procedures that map out the direction of the assessment strategy. As a result, drawing upon applied linguistic theories on what is to be tested in speaking becomes essential for teachers and researchers. Sari Luoma’s book attempts to provide these necessary theories, concepts, and issues in the assessment of speaking.

ASSESSING LISTENING

OBSERVING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FOUR SKILL

Before focusing on listening itself, think about the two interacting concepts of performance and observation. All language users perform the acts of listening. Speaking, reading & writing. They of course rely on their underlying competence in order to accomplish these performances. When you propose to asses that person’s competence, but you observe the person’s performance.

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What's Wrong with Standardized Tests?

Are standardized tests fair and helpful evaluation tools?

Not really. On standardized exams, all test takers answer the same questions under the same conditions, usually in multiple-choice format. Such tests reward quick answers to superficial questions. They do not measure the ability to think deeply or creatively in any field. Their use encourages a narrowed curriculum, outdated methods of instruction, and harmful practices such as grade retention and tracking.

Are standardized tests objective?

The only objective part of most standardized tests is scoring, when done by an accurately programmed machine. Deciding what items to include on the test, how questions are worded, which answers are scored as "correct,” how the test is administered, and the uses of exam results are all made by subjective human beings.

Diagnostic Testing in Education

Diagnostic testing is an important tool for educators who want to know where their students are academically in order to bring those students to where they need to be. If you want your students to move forward, you need to identify where they have started; diagnostic testing is the way to do this.

Principles of Assessment

Assessment has profited from the advances that have taken place in statistical analysis over the last century and it is now considered important for assessors to check their tests empirically as well as rationally. In addition, the upsurge in interest in the results of tests and examinations by governments, parents and candidates has led to a multi-million pound testing industry and contemporaneously there is a huge increase in the numbers of scholars researching different aspects of testing and assessment.

Although trends in testing, as in other fields, change over time, some principles of assessment are permanent and are not overly affected by current fashions. They need to be held in mind by assessors whenever they construct a test, whether this be a class quiz, a class essay or an end-of-year examination. (Here the terms 'test' and 'assessment' are used interchangeably.) The most important of these principles fall under three heads: validity, reliability and washback. Whilst the following discussion focuses specifically upon language assessment, the principles of testing apply more generally.