How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

38 Part 2: How can we mark & administer speaking tests? do well, so it can be much easier to give just a single overall score Most importantly, however, holistic marking is an authentic form of assessment that fully embraces human subjectivity Underhill (1987: 101) makes this point quite well: Impression-based marking calls for subjective judgement in its most positive sense. Whenever we talk to a foreigner in our na tive language, we make a judgement about his language ability. It may not even be conscious, but we automatically form a sub jective, personal opinion of the foreigner’s communicative ability in the real world. It is the sum of all these personal judgements made by all the people the foreigner speaks to that finally de termines how well he has communicated: deliberate and care ful impression-based marking is the most direct and authentic reflection of the real-life process that it is possible to have in an oral test. However, despite these attractive advantages, there are some severe downsides to holistic marking You’ll need to deal with them if you want to successfully employ this approach Weigle (in Weir, 2005) outlines a few of the key problems First, a single score, such as a letter or number, does not provide much useful diagnostic information Yes, students know what each letter grade represents, and that is something, but in terms of highlighting specific progress in speaking ability, holistic scores don’t really tell you all that much Next, holistic scores can be hard to interpret because teachers often have different criteria when assigning marks For example, what constitutes a passing or failing grade? I have my opinion, and you have yours, so who is right? Finally, inconsisten cy is a big drawback in that it can be all too easy to get distracted by something superficial, such as your unconscious preference for students with bright personalities, the way you prioritize accuracy over other aspects without realizing it, or simply that you feel really sleepy during your fourth class of the day Taken together, the draw-