Second edition

m using language accurately © using language appropriately ® interactive strategies m pronunciation @ vocabulary range • discourse organisation.
The teacher can use these subs к ills or some of them (depending on the level of the class) as criteria against which to judge their learners' speaking. At beginner or low levels the teacher might want to just use e.g. pronunciation and vocabulary range as assessment criteria. In school tests, the assessment criteria should reflect the focus of what has been taught. It is not fair in a progress or an achievement test to test students on e.g. their organisation of writing, if they have never been taught this. Assessment criteria help to make subjective tests less subjective, because the teacher will mark all the students' work using the same criteria.


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ban	dsv T he cr i ter ia h a v e be e n a	rrauged to describe different	levels of ability.
	Accuracy	Fluency	Pronunciation
5	Grammatical and lexical accuracy extremely high.	Speaks fluently without hesitation or searching for words.	Very dear; stress and intonation help to make meaning dear.
4	Quite accurate; some errors, but meaning is always dear.	Some hesitation and sometimes has to search for words.	Generally dear; reasonable control of stress and intonation.
3	Frequent errors; meaning is not always dear.	Quite hesitant; limited range of vocabulary and structures.	Frequent errors; not always dear enough to understand.
2	Very frequent errors; difficulty in making meaning dear.	Extremely hesitant; very limited range of language available.	Very frequent errors; often very difficult to understand.
1	Almost unable to communicate.

These particular bands cover a wide range of ability. When working with a particular class it may be more useful for the teacher to work with a narrower range. The bands could be used in a formal assessment of speaking or to help a teacher carry out informal assessment. Informal assessment is sometimes used to assess students' behaviour, attitudes or learner characteristics rather than their language abilities. In this case the assessment criteria might be e.g. motivation, degree of participation in group work, type of learning style, etc.
■ Key concepts and the language teaching classroom
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