How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

77 Chapter 6: Plan out the test admin details ahead of time

is to assign partners after conducting a practice test—you can base your decisions on the results of this rehearsal exam Then, when the real test day arrives, you should have enough information to put to gether students who are at about the same level You may not be able to get it perfect, but if you can avoid some obviously poor pairings, then you’ll have made a positive difference Oh, and one more idea: another way to lower the negative ef fects induced by large proficiency differences is to go with three students per testing group This will help minimize the effect one really low or high level student can have (Breaux, 2016) On the other hand, three students will mean less speaking time for all, so you’ll need to increase the amount of testing time in this case Test length will depend on the format, available time, and number of students you need to get through How often should you conduct speaking tests? This is a very good question to consider Of course there is no one perfect answer for everyone How often you give speaking tests will depend on your teaching context, overall course goals, and personal style In other words, you could make oral testing a part of every class (Azra et al , 2005) or just conduct a few throughout the semes ter The final decision resides with you In my opinion, two or three tests per term is a good minimum amount to shoot for You need one test to serve as a baseline to which the final exam can be compared to How often you test in-between is up to you A lot will depend on how motivated and mature your students are For example, if many are quite immature and do not take studying se riously, then more frequent testing can help them be more produc-