How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

55 Chapter 5: Identify & define your evaluation criteria

started with oral assessment, I recommend simpler, more narrow definitions For example, I usually just focus on Intonation and de fine it as how friendly your voice sounds because many of my students speak with flat, emotionless voices By including this on my exams, they are encouraged to put more friendly energy into their conver sations By focusing on this single aspect of pronunciation, I can mark this construct more consistently Finally, a good point about Weir’s definition is how pronunciation is assessed in terms of comprehension . The more effort you have to make to understand your students, the lower their score becomes This is a very effective way to assess this construct The trick is train ing yourself to be sensitive to how much you have to strain to com prehend your students Once you are tuned in to that, you’re all set up to provide effective feedback: Okay, Yumi, nice job! Your pronun ciation was very good overall, but there were a few words I had a hard time understanding. For example, ... Next, lets take Weir’s next two constructs, Vocabulary and Grammatical Accuracy together in order to bring up an important issue regarding the benefits of choosing marking categories that are conceptually distinct Vocabulary 4. Effective use of vocabulary for the task with few inappropriacies. 3. For the most part, effective use of vocabulary for the task with some examples of inappropriacy. 2. Limited use of vocabulary with frequent inappropriacies. 1. Inappropriate and inadequate vocabulary.