How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

92 Part 3: Three speaking test ideas • Introduce the pair or have them introduce themselves so that you know who is who on the recording Okay, for our first pair, we have Ken Toyama and Miya Saki… • Fill out your marking/feedback sheet as the students perform their conversations Alternatively, if you’re recording, you don’t need to mark right away Instead, you could just watch, listen, and take notes • After a pair finishes, thank them for their effort, get them going again on the language practice task, and move on to the next pair • The test officially ends after you have assessed all of the pairs Marking & admin tips Lower-level learners will not be able to produce a huge amount of language in the time they have, so it should not take you long to get through each pair Expect to spend about a minute or two on each You’ll likely find that most students will adhere closely to their scripts, but some may ad-lib a bit from time to time To encourage more of this, make it a point on your marking scheme to give extra credit for spontaneously generated content If you embed your scoring rubric on the transcript paper itself (on the front or back), it is possible to complete the marking in class This will save you a lot of time Just jot down the scores, show them to the students, say a few constructive words, and then move on to the next pair However, when you’re just getting started, I recommend going about it slowly by doing the marking after class from the recording This will ensure more consistent and reliable results and help you build up your real-time marking skills Variation Ideas One easy way to make this test more challenging is to not have stu dents create an L1 script to look at during assessment Another way