Language Assessment EUROPEAN SCALES OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY BASIC CONCEPTS IN ASSESSMENT ASSESSING ORAL PERFORMANCE Global Scale  Basic User  Independent User  Proficient User A1, A2 B1, B2 C1, C2 (Common European framework of reference for languages. Learning, teaching, assessment.) Assessment  Informal  Formal Formative (over time) Summative (outcomes at the end of instruction) How to Test Speaking?  What is a speaking task? …activities that involve speakers in using language for the purpose of achieving a particular goal or objective in a particular speaking situation. (Bachman and Palmer as cited in Sari Luoma Assesing speaking. p. 31) Types of classroom speaking performance:  Imitative (like a tape recorder)  Intensive (rhymes, learners ‘go over’ certain forms of the language)  Responsive (short replies to teacher-or student-initiated questions or comments.)  Transactional (dialog to convey or exchange specific information)  Interpersonal Dialog to maintain social relationships  Extensive (planned or impromptu monologues) (Based on H.D. Brown Teaching by Principles pp.271274) Steps in designing classroom assessment procedures:  Specify the category of speaking performance.  Consider the micro- and macroskills that you are going to assess.  Think of the genre of spoken language. Some suggestions for consideration:  Imitative speaking tasks  Repeating the sentences Intensive Learning a rhyme  S1-Whole class (What did you do on holiday?)  Completing a dialogue  Acting out a dialogue  Reading aloud (for checking pronunciation)  Picture-cued elicitation of a grammatical item  Some suggestions:  Responsive Question elicitation (ask me about my favourite film)  Picture-cued elicitation of response (Q-A)  Map-cued elicitation  Question and answers  Some suggestions:  Interactive tasks    Role plays Interviews Debates  Extensive    Retelling a text Describing a picture Describing one’s favourite film, ….. What to evaluate in a speaking task?  Accuracy in phonology, vocabulary and grammar.  Fluency and discourse (cohesion, sociolinguistic appropriateness).  Accomplishing the objective of the task. Suggested reading:  Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive     approach to language pedagogy. Longman: New York. Common European framework of reference for languages. Learning, teaching, assessment. (2001). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Fourth edition. Harlow: Longman. Luoma, S.( 2004). Assessing speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Weir, C. J. (1990). Communicative language testing. Prentice Hall International