General conclusion

Learning English as a foreign language has become a priority nowadays. Thus, the

ability to speak the language is needed. However, EFL learners struggle while performing

orally. Likewise, teachers find the assessment of speaking problematic. Hence, the current

research paper attempted to explore and investigate the teachers’ practices in the assessment

of student’s oral performances. The study in hand stated that the learners are more likely to

promote their oral performances when they’re well informed of the criteria and practices of

assessment relied upon by the teacher.

This study was composed of three main chapters. The first chapter was devoted to

theoretical backgrounds of the speaking skill. The second chapter provided a detailed

interpretation of the assessment process. Moreover, the third chapter of the study was

practical and was dedicated to the data collection and issued a description of the research

instruments and the main results of the questionnaire and interview. Accordingly, the findings

were interpreted, analyzed, and conclusions were made.

The results of this research show that EFL students at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia

University, Jijel give a particular focus to the speaking skill. The findings also revealed that

teachers do not neglect any of the components of the speaking skill along the assessment

process, and they mostly use role-plays, presentations, and dialogues as activities to assess the

speaking skill, while the materials used to teach this skill included videos, audio-tracks,

handouts, and other authentic materials. Additionally, the results also indicated that teachers

do not agree on whether or not they should use alternative assessment methods and involve

students in the assessment process, and one out of four teachers prefers to assess students’

oral performance holistically rather than analytically. Furthermore, students considered their

teachers’ feedback crucial in order to not repeat the same mistakes again, to be more

confident when performing, and to improve their speaking skill in general, whilst teachers
asserted that group feedback is more beneficial for the students. It was also worth mentioning

that teachers are varying their strategies to assess all of the learners’ spoken production,

including the less talkative ones. Hence, the aforementioned hypothesis corresponds with the

findings of this paper.

To sum up, the primary motivation behind this study was to explore the challenges

faced by the teachers of OE module in assessing the spoken language of EFL learners. Many

previous studies have shown that it is not easy to assess such skill since there are many factors

that could influence the teachers’ decisions (such as: Brown & yule, 1983; Luoma, 2004). In

other words, OE teachers should aim to make the assessment process beneficial for the

student, in order to help them progress and develop their speaking skills.