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Chapter II. Speaking assessment methods and criteria
2.1 Approaches to assessing the skill of speaking
Assessment on speaking can be a very judgmental issue, in which people tend to relate on native/nonnative speakers on the basis of pronunciation. Additionally, it is viewed that speaking requires someone to be linguistically competence in term of well articulating the sound, and mastering structural or grammatical components. To speak also needs functional competence which means answering questions completely and logically. Another competence is strategic competence in which the speaker is able to use repairing strategies when conversation breaks down. And the last one is cultural competence. It demands the speakers to use the language appropriately to the context.
This theory then developed as the criteria of speaking test assessment. However, the design of speaking assessment may vary; depend on the types of speaking assessed. Then what should be tested?
Grammar
Test takers are assessed on how to control its usage within sentences, to construct, to use appropriately and accurately and to avoid grammatical errors.
Vocabulary
The range, precision, and the usage of vocabulary features in a conversation used by test takers indicate the levels of how proficient they are.
Comprehension
Understanding the context of the conversation and able to give appropriate response according to the question.
Fluency
The language fluency indicates that the production of speech in a conversation is well delivered. Have confidence in delivering the speech and able to respond specific theme without many hesitations in choosing words.
Pronunciation
Pronunciation deals with how often mistakes in pronunciation occur and how the pronunciation aspect interfere the communication are the criteria of the assessment.
Like all test scores, speaking scores must be dependable, fair, and above all useful for the intended purposes.
Language acquisition and development have been viewed from various perspectives. The behaviorists believe that learning is a result of a series of stimuli and responses. Learners are made to produce language automatically through repetition of structures. Habits are formed as a result of reinforcement and reward.
The behavioristic ideas were rejected. Children have an inherent ability to learn any language. It is believed that children are born with a Language Acquisition Devise. They are able to pick up and process language that they hear around them easily. They are also able to acquire grammar based on certain similarities all languages have. Chomsky accounts for this ability through his principle of Universal Grammar. All languages are made up of the same components such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, vowels and consonants. Nevertheless, in learning a second language, learners may produce linguistic structures which differ from those made by native speakers of the language. It is argued that second language learners do not use principles of UG independently without referring to their first language.
According to the cognitive and information processing theories, language learning is the result of the human brain forming networks of associations based on the input received. It was postulated that children interact with their environment to obtain knowledge and understand the world around them. One of the views is in line with first, that the child acquires language by engaging in conversation with adults. The adults teach children about the world around them.
Lenneberg, a psycholinguist, postulates the Critical Age Hypothesis for language acquisition. According to this hypothesis language acquisition can easily occur between the age of two and the age of puberty, that is, around the age of twelve. After this age, the acquisition process is slower. The explanation seems to be that during the critical age language processing can take place in both the right and left side of the brain. After maturation, the language function shifts to the left side of the brain. Lateralization is said to have taken place. Acquisition after this stage is said to be slower and less successful than normal first language learning. However, a few studies have shown that children above the age of 12 are faster than younger children in acquiring second language morphology and syntax. Assessment of speaking skills often lags far behind the importance given to teaching those skills in the curriculum.
Here, some examples for making assessment in order to check students’ comprehension skills in speaking field.
The workshop
The workshop takes between about 1½ and 2¼ hours and requires two or three short video clips of students talking. Making your own video clips is preferable, as you can make the task and situation reflect the type of test which the teachers you are addressing are most likely to use.
Stage 1: Assessment criteria
Viewing and reflection (10 minutes)
Teachers are shown a video clip of a student (or students) talking and are asked to reflect on the question ‘Which aspects of the students’ speaking would affect the grade you would give the students for their speaking skills? The presenter needs to say in advance how long the clip will be, and what instructions were given to the students.
Discussion (15 minutes)
Teachers can compare their notes in pairs or small groups, and then this discussion can open up into a plenary. The objective at this stage is to get the teachers to be more conscious of what affects their own judgements, and to see how others may view it differently. The presenter’s role will include pinning people down on vague terms, such as ‘communicative’ or ‘passive’ easy to understand, says a lot, makes up for linguistic weakness with gestures, etc., interacts well with other person in role-play. Another role is to elicit or suggest concrete examples of features being discussed. There is no need at this stage to try to resolve all the differences of opinion, as often those differences stem from different assumptions about the testing context, which will be looked at later. After this discussion, it is useful to show the clip again, so that people can reconsider the points made by themselves and others.
List of assessment criteria (10-15 minutes)
The presenter then hands out copies of the list of assessment criteria. This list is fairly comprehensive in its broad categories, though within those there could be many more detailed criteria, for example
in Figure 1.
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