CiC3-TB

Practicality : Determining the practicality of this approach to testing speaking is difficult to gauge because it depends on several factors, namely your organizational skills, willingness to deal with technology, and time outside of class for marking. If you have a huge class, this may not be a practical means of testing as it involves finding a system for collecting and managing digital audio files. If students email them to you, you’ll need to set up a place to keep them, such as a cloud-based storage system like Dropbox. This requires time and effort to set up. If you can manage the technical and organizational aspects, however, this format could be a great way to go given its high reliability and validity, not to mention the built-in pedagogical benefits. In addition, if you are interested in classroom-based research, this approach would enable you to collect lots of data. Comparing student recordings made at the beginning and end of the year would give you a data-centric perspective on how your students did and ideas for how you can teach the course more successfully in the future. A R OLE FOR R OLEPLAYING Another idea that can add an interesting

In this format, students must listen to themselves speak at a deep level, as the transcribing process reveals each good and bad point. This testing format therefore contains a great deal of pedagogical benefit. In addition, the recordings can be listened to later on in the course, enabling students to self evaluate their progress. Option 2: Like option 1, with the only difference being that students are only given one take to record their X minute long conversation. When everyone is ready, you give a signal for the recording to begin, then keep time with a timer that everyone can see. Once time is up, students must transcribe whatever they managed to record, warts and all. Naturally, this is a much more challenging test format, as students must be highly focused to conduct their conversation and record Reliability : This is a highly reliable format because the audio recording preserves actual performance. It can be listened to multiple times as you mark it, allowing for a more accurate assessment. To increase reliability of the transcription process, students will need to be taught a few conventions, depending on how accurate you want them to be. For example, do you want them to indicate long pauses? If so, how? How about simultaneous speech? How should laughter be transcribed? Going over some model transcripts ahead of time can help students understand how to go about it. Validity : This is an extremely valid test format because it is a true measure of speaking skills. The transcribing process brings in some writing and listening, but these are simply in service of capturing a clear snapshot of their ability at any given moment. it successfully in only one go. Use this with higher level students to get a clear snapshot of their off-the-cuff speaking ability.

challenge to any of the test formats described here would be for the students (and you, if necessary) to role play a character. This would encourage students to develop their creativity and improvisation skills, which are necessary elements for making smooth and natural

communication. Role-playing is baked into this textbook, so students should have familiarity with how to do it. In addition, if you happen to have a group of students that are studying a specialist area (such as pre-med, nursing, tourism, or hotel management), consider adding a roleplaying element to your speaking tests that enables them to act out particular scenarios in their field.

How do I test my students? 127