How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

44 Part 2: How can we mark & administer speaking tests? Which way is best?

To summarize, when practicality is of paramount importance, when you want to test your students quickly, efficiently, and frequently, holistic marking is a good way to go If practicality is less of an issue, and the most important thing is test validity and clear learner feed back, then analytic scales are preferable (Weir, 2005) Of course, you can also try your hand at mixing the two in an attempt to get the most out of both approaches Whichever way you go, it is probably best to not limit yourself to only one way of marking Variety is the spice of life , they say; let it be so with your choice of marking schemes