How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

Chapter 5 Identify & define your evaluation criteria

O nce you’ve decided your overall marking approach, the next task is creating the actual assessment scheme This will typi cally involve a rating scale rubric to help guide your marking and assist in the delivery of feedback Rating scales for holistic and analytic approaches are quite similar The key for either is to precise ly identify and define the grading criteria Mendelsohn (1989: 117) makes clear why this is such a critical decision: It is imperative that we spell out the specifications for our test precisely. Only by doing that, will we test what we teach. If we do not do this, we will begin the process of test design at the end, by thinking of tasks and test items. And when we do that, the items rather than what we have taught will shape the test. In other words, to do a speaking test right, you need to be really clear up front on what you want your students to be able to do The clearer you are, the easier your tests will be to make, and the more effective they’ll be (Weir, 2005)

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