Principles of Language Assessment – Speaking Exam

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Table of Contents

Assessment Design
Rationale
Rubric for Assessment
References

Assessment Design

In this assessment, students will choose a topic and have a conversation about the chosen topic for six minutes in pairs. Students will choose from the following topics: art, childhood, food, hobbies. It will be a summative assessment of the students’ knowledge of the four topics they learned during the semester. The type of this activity is a short informal chat in the form of interactive speaking.

The objectives for this speaking exam are as follows:

To enable students to speak on a topic of their choice in an informal atmosphere, develop their fluency and accuracy in word choice and sentence structure, and examine their understanding of the interlocutor’s thoughts and ideas. All speaking activities should be related to one of the chosen topics: art, childhood, food, or hobbies.

Secondary objectives are:

To demonstrate the use of topic-related vocabulary and choose proper words and phrases to describe the topic better.

The outline of the speaking exam is as follows:

Provide students with lists of topics and words related to each of the four topics to ensure that they understand the task and remind them of the vocabulary.
Explain to students the activity process: they should engage in 6-minute dialogues on one of the chosen topics.
Provide all students with a rubric that will help them better prepare for the activity and receive feedback and grade from their fellows and the teacher.
Ask students to write down possible questions and answers they will use in their conversations related to the chosen topic.
Monitor students’ activity and provide constant feedback and assistance (for example, help with new words and pronunciation, remind the vocabulary).
Give students some time to prepare for their conversation and allow them to rehearse their dialogues before the final assessment.
Provide students with examples of some useful words and phrases they can use in their conversations:
Art: A: Do you like art? What is your favorite kind of art?

B: My favorite art is (noun)

A: What art is popular in your home city?

B: The most popular art in my home city is (noun).

A: What can you tell about the work of art by (name of an artist)?

B: This work of art is (adjective related to art).

Childhood: A: What activities did you enjoy in childhood?

B: I enjoyed (gerund verbs related to the topic)

A: What is your best memory from childhood?

B: My best memory is (word choice and sentence structure)

A: Do you think children growing in the countryside are happier than children growing in the city? Explain.

B: I think children who grow up in the countryside/city are happier because (list reasons).

Food: A: What is your favorite food?

B: My favorite food is (vocabulary related to food)

A: What are the national meals in your country?

B: The national meals in my country are (vocabulary)

A: Tell me something about your diet.

B: My diet consists of (vocabulary)

Hobbies: A: Do you have a hobby?

B: Yes, my hobby is (vocabulary related to hobbies)

A: What do you feel when you are engaged in a hobby process?

B: I feel (words related to the topic)

A: What activities make you unhappy?

B: I feel unhappy when I (vocabulary)

Ask students to change their roles in the dialogues so that each of them could both ask and answer questions.
Give examples of some students’ mistakes (anonymous) to provide them with feedback and assistance.
Finally, listen to the students’ six-minute dialogues and assess them using the rubric.

Rationale

This exam is aimed to assess students’ knowledge of new words and phrases they learned during the semester. According to Spacey (2019), a lesson rationale explains “why a lesson has value to students” (para. 10). This speaking activity has value to students because it allows them to recollect the information they have already learned about the four topics mentioned above and check their pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and syntax.

The activity will be based on the five principles of language assessment: “practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback” (Baca, 2014, para. 1). The first principle is practicality, and it assesses whether the activity is practical or not. The chosen activity is not expensive and does not require much time to complete because it is a summative exam. Since students are required to use the words and phrases they have learned during the semester, they will only need time to recollect the words and create dialogues with the help of the topic-related vocabulary. Since the students and the teacher will receive the rubric before the exam, they will have some time to prepare for the assessment. The teacher will need some more time to grade each student, but they will stay within a short time frame.

As to reliability, the speaking activity should be assessed consistently. According to Tazik (2019), reliability has to do with consistent results in the students in different circumstances (p. 122). Using rubrics may be slightly subjective in the speaking exam because some students may feel nervous during the exam, and their fluency and pronunciation may suffer due to their stress. However, the rubric was made in such a way that an evaluator’s bias would be almost impossible. Moreover, if the students receive the rubric before the exam and the teacher explains how to use it, the risk of subjectivity in peer assessment will be minimal. At the same time, the exam will be unreliable if students are allowed to choose topics by themselves. Therefore, students should choose the topic randomly, without seeing the cards with the topic names.

The speaking exam is valid because it fully measures students’ speaking ability: word choice, sentence structure, pronunciation, and fluency. The exam will allow the students to demonstrate their speaking skills in the topics they learned during the semester. The teacher’s and other students’ feedback will be useful for the students to understand their progress and areas of improvement.

As to the authenticity of the speaking exam, it can be considered authentic because it imitates a real-world conversation. According to Hidayati (2016), the assessment is authentic because it “represents classroom and real life settings” (p. 141). Students will be able to display the use of new words and phrases in informal conversations.

The fifth principle of language assessment is washback. Washback is “the influence of language assessment on teaching and learning” (Bokiev & Samad, 2021, p. 555). Washback of the speaking exam is positive because students can train their skills and rehearse the dialogs before the presentation. Moreover, the teacher’s assistance and feedback during the activity will allow them to correct their mistakes and assess their knowledge before the exam.

Rubric for Assessment

Dimension	4	3	2	1
Pronunciation	Phonetically correct, error-free, proper accent, tries to sound like a native speaker	Generally correct, minor mistakes in pronunciation	More than 4 mistakes that confuse the listener and make them guess what the speaker wants to say	Too many mistakes, little attempt to pronounce words properly
Fluency	Smooth and continuous flow, no long pauses	Occasional pauses needed to search for words, ability to self-correct and respond to hints	Hesitating, translating the words before responding, repeating the question before responding	Constant searching for words, eventual responses, no attempt to understand the question and reply to it
Syntax	Grammatical errors are absent, student corrects their own mistakes quickly	Two or fewer syntax mistakes, self-correction on some errors	Many errors (tense agreement, verb forms), incorrect structures	Most structures are incorrect, student uses infinitive instead of other verb forms, inability to create sentences that will be easy to understand
Vocabulary	Wide range of words, uses new words and phrases appropriately, responds in an interesting and engaging way	Appropriate vocabulary, good response	Basic words, incorrect use of words and phrases, expressions are simple and similar	Incorrect use of words and phrases, difficult communication, limited vocabulary, short and simple responses
Response	Almost always responds to all questions properly	Appropriately responds to questions frequently, but not always	Sometimes responds appropriately	Rarely responds appropriately
Oral presentation	Properly uses intonation, verbal cues, self-correction, speaks clearly, uses facial expressions, establishes eye contact with all participants	Uses some of the communication strategies, establishes eye contact with some participants	Partially uses intonation and verbal cues, sometimes speaks clearly, sometimes establishes eye contact	Does not use any communication strategies, does not establish eye contact, often mumbles and speaks in low tone

References

Baca, M. (2014). Principles of language assessment: Practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback. Blog Lightning R-md. Web.

Bokiev, U., & Samad, A.A. (2021). Washback of an English language assessment system in a Malaysian University Foundation Programme. The Qualitative Report, 26(2), 555-587. Web.

Hidayati, N. (2016). The authenticity of English language assessment for the twelfth graders of SMK (vocational high school) Negeri 4 Surakarta. Premise Journal, 5(1), 140-159. Web.

Spacey, J. (2019). 6 examples of a rationale. Simplicable. Web.

Tazik, K. (2019). Validity and reliability reports in applied linguistics research articles: The case of tests and questionnaire. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching & Research, 7(28), 121-134. Web.