How to Test Speaking Skills in Japan

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

In summary

Language abilities are not easy to measure; we cannot expect a level of accuracy comparable to those of measurements in the physical sciences. But we can expect greater accuracy that is fre quently achieved. -Hughes, 1989: 2 In this chapter, I’ve done my best to break down the mystery sur rounding the marking and administration of in-class speaking tests While admittedly complex, if you boil the process down to three basic steps, then it is much easier to grasp: Decide your overall approach I’ve focused on classic holistic/analytic approaches that are already intuitively familiar with most teachers irrespective of experience level There are, of course, many other alternative methods of oral assessment, such a self-assessment, peer-assessment, portfolios, journals, and dynamic or continuous assessments (Brown, 2013) Whatever methodology you use, this is the first major decision you need to make when considering how you’ll assess your students’ speaking skills Choose and define your evaluation criteria Decide which aspects of speaking are most important for your stu dents to learn and create a rating scale rubric that contains defini tions and level descriptors that are clear and easy for the them to understand Beware that speaking itself is hard to pin down, and there are many ways to define it Don’t worry about being pefect, go with constructs that you’re comfortable with, and don’t choose too many If you can, bring your students into the development process of your rubric Doing so will help them learn even more