Starters Speaking Test Assessment Scales - to be interpreted at Starters level

0 1 2 3
Listening & interaction Understands only some of Understands most of the Understands all the

Non–attendance / no attempt to respond

Reception

the instructions and instructions and questions, instructions and questions,

questions, and requires a lot with frequent support (a). with some support (a).
of support (a).

Language Utterances are inappropriate, Many utterances are Most utterances are
(words & phrases) or unarticulated. appropriate, but minimal (b). appropriate. Some are more
than one word in length (b).
Production

Pronunciation Speech is often difficult to Speech is sometimes difficult Speech can generally be
understand (c). to understand (c). understood (c) with ease.

NB The 3 criteria - Listening & interaction, Language (words & phrases) and Pronunciation all carry the same weight.

(a) “Support” refers to the examiner slowing down, repeating questions, or using back-up questions.
(b) Minimal utterances are those given on the interlocutor frame; any words or phrases additional to this are considered expansion, e.g. for
the question ‘What food do you like?’, giving more than one type of food is considered an expansion.
(c) “Understood” means understood by the examiner in the context of the test (i.e. not necessarily by third parties who are not familiar with
the test material).