How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

22 Part 1: Why should we bother with speaking tests? 2005) For a speaking test, are your students clear on what topics you want them to talk about and what sort of language you’d like them to use? If they do, you’re all set, but if some don’t, then this is an issue you’ll need to address Do your students understand your marking scheme? Another key point—do your students understand your marking scheme? This is a topic I’ll be taking up in Part 2 Fortunately, this is not a difficult thing to do if you know how to go about it Related to this is the issue of marking consistency When you mark your exams, do you do them all the same way? With written exams that contain only one right answer per question, this is not really an issue When assessing speaking skills, however, it is a very big one Part of the art of successful oral testing resides in your ability to mark each student the same way Again, we’ll address specific tips and tricks for doing this in Part 2 If you had a colleague administer your test, would the students still get about the same scores, all else being equal? This is an interesting one to consider—imagine you were out sick, so you asked your co-worker to conduct and mark the speaking test you had scheduled for the day If all test conditions remained the same, would the students get similar scores from both of you? Achieving this sort of marking consistency would require you to have a really clear and simple test design, so pondering this question is quite helpful as you create your test because it will push you to do a better job Will your students take tests seriously? Fortunately, this is not a huge issue in Japan because most students have been deeply conditioned to respect authority and the impor tance of the testing process Still, it can be a problem in certain teaching contexts Keep an eye on this one—if you are dealing with