ASSESSING SPEAKING

Writen by Group 5
Teguh Prasetyo (20020084067)
Shilvi Alfu Rohmatin (20020084074)
Fara Fauziyyah (20020084075)

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 Table of Contents

Cover ..............................................................................................................................1
Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................2
A. Introduction .............................................................................................................3
B. The subskills of speaking ........................................................................................3
C. How to assess the speaking skill ..............................................................................4
D. The scoring procedures ...........................................................................................7
E. Conclusion ................................................................................................................9
References .....................................................................................................................10
Appendix ......................................................................................................................11

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A. Introduction
Speaking skill is one of the essential skills that students in language teaching must
master. Speaking requires us to use verbal language to communicate with other people.
Good speakers are those who can process the language in their heads and arrange it into
a good sentence so that the other person can easily understand it. Apart from that,
assessing speaking is one of the most complicated assessments in a language test
because many factors affect the teacher's overall impression of how good a person
speaks. One of the main reasons that make assessing speaking considered the most
complicated assessment is the nature of speaking skills that are not well defined. That is
why differences of opinion arise in choosing what aspects to assess when assessing
speaking ability.
There is an unwritten standard where grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary are
often considered in assessing speaking. But other things such as fluency and
appropriateness of expression are usually regarded as essential aspects in assessing
speaking. In short, assessing speaking has many elements, and it is not easy to identify
them. Moreover, there is no agreement on how to measure each of the element.
Another thing that makes assessing speaking complicated is how to get students to
speak and evaluate many elements at once. Also, there are practical problems when
testing students individually. That is why assessing speaking is one of the most
complicated because it has numerous elements, requires proper preparation,
management, and assessment. One way to overcome these problems is to simplify the
task by limiting the aspects of the speaking activity being tested.

B. The subskills of speaking

Grammar
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Fluency
Appropriateness

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C. How to assess the speaking skill
Some techniques can be used to assessing speaking, such as:
1. Limited Response
a) Directed Response
The directed response is made by giving direct questions to students.
Then students are asked to respond to the questions provided with their
respective perspectives and use the right words.

Example :
Can you tell me about the best experience you got last year?

To respond to the question, students must tell the best experience they
had last year with the correct wording. Students are required to use the
past tense form because they have to tell their experience, which has
already happened.

b) Picture Cue
The second way is to use images as a tool. This method can also be used
to assess the limited speaking ability of students. By providing a picture,
students will be helped to answer the questions given orally.

Example :

"Tell me about these pictures. What happend there?"

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 To answer the question, students must look at the picture carefully and
express their opinion orally. Correct answers could include "A boy
helping an old woman who was lost" or "A boy helping an old woman."

c) Reading Aloud
The third way is to read aloud. By using reading aloud, we can know the
comparison of one student to another. Reading aloud can also be used to
assess how good students master grammar.

Example :
A Light Blue Place at the South Edge of the World

Antarctica is my dream place to visit because it is the coldest place in the

world and it has unique nature. When you arrive in Antarctica, you will
feel the extreme temperature changes because the temperature in this
place can reach -89 °C. As a result, your body will feel very cold
temperatures that you have never felt before because almost all of this
place is just an ice. The other reason why this place is very cold because
nearly 80% of sunlight is reflected by solid ice sheets. Besides,
Antarctica also has a lot of unique nature. First, you can find the frozen
lake with a lot of ice tracks. Second, you will see many penguin nests
that have a strong smell of penguin. Third, you can find the red waterfall
or known as Blood Falls that have red water color like blood. If you look
a bit up stair, you can see the iceberg with gigantic size that looks so
incredible. For the last one, if you are lucky, you can see the beautiful
aurora with beautiful mixed colors in the sky at night. In conclusion, the
coldest and unique nature in Antarctica makes me want to visit that place.

We can assess students' speaking ability by seeing how they read the
sample text above aloud. Students can get good grades if they can read
the text with few pronunciation and punctuation errors.

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2. Guided Techiques
a) Pharaprase
Paraphrasing is included in the guide techniques because students are
guided to listen to the teacher's story, then they are given a guide to retell
the story in their language. Paraphrasing can also be done by having
students read a story individually and retell the story in their language
orally.

Example :
Please listen to me as I read a story about Little Red Riding Hood. When
I finish, I would like you to tell me the story in your own word.

b) Guided Role Play

Guided role play can be used to assess students' speaking ability. This
method can also see the difference between how students play their roles.
The teacher will explain the situation briefly and determine the part of
each student, and then the students will do the role-play according to
what has been determined.

Example :
You two have graduated from high school and are looking for work.
There is a company that needs new workers, and you guys try to the job
as fresh graduates. You will speak directly to the manager. I (The
teacher) will play the role of manager.
Teacher : “May I help you guys?”
Student 1 : “Yes. I want to apply for a job”
Student 2 : “Same here”
Teacher : “I see, please tell me about your strenghts”
Students : [respond with states their strenght]
Teacher : “Do you have any experience?”
Students : [responds with “no”]
Teacher : “I’ll need your name and address”

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 Students : [respond with saying their name and address]
Teacher : “Well, I think that’s all. I will send a letter to each of your
addresses to let you know whether you are accepted for work or not. You
guys can leave now”
Students : [leave the room and thanks the manager]

Teachers and students who are doing guide role play must know what
they are saying correctly. They must speak with the correct intonation
and expression. Assessment can be based on how well the student
composes words for any given situation. If students use good vocabulary
in the right situations, students will get good grades.

3. Oral Interview
The last method is the oral interview. In an oral interview, students need to
read the situation and overcome the tension when talking to someone. Some
people will find it difficult to speak when they are nervous, which often
happens during an oral interview. Students can get good grades if they can
use good language and are not nervous when answering questions given by
the interviewer.

D. The scoring procedures

There are two ways of scoring in assessing speaking, namely:

a) Holistic Scoring
Holistic scoring is a method of assessing composition based on its overall
quality. Holistic assessment makes assessor criteria based on pre-agreed
criteria. These criteria can consist of numbers or letters representing
excellent, good, moderate, poor, and very poor.

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 The following is a description of the holistic assessment categories that
can be used to assess speaking:
Excellent : Speak sounds like a native and have no problems with
grammar or other elements.
Good : Using grammar and other elements quite well, although
still making a few mistakes when speaking.
Moderate : Made some mistakes in grammar and pronunciation, but
still understandable.
Poor : Doing a lot of repetition when speaking and have quite a
lot of mistakes in grammar and other elements.
Very poor : Too many mistakes in what they speak, so it is not
understandable at all.

b) Objectified Scoring
Objectified scoring is often used to determine right or wrong without
adding partial credit to the rating. We can see the picture on page 4 as an
example. The teacher asks the question, "What happened[ CITATION JBH90 \l
1033 ][ CITATION HSM83 \l 1033 ] there?" The student who answered the
question by saying "A boy helping an old woman who was lost" or "A
boy helping an old woman" could be categorized as the correct answer.
However, if the student answered, "A grandmother" or "A boy" or "A
grandmother walking," it was categorized as an incorrect answer.
Students must correctly answer the context in question. In this case, it is
"What happened there."
However, since speaking tests are productive, teachers often give partial
credit when assessing speaking. For example, if there are 25 items on the
test, we can give 2 points for the correct answer, 1 point for the half-
correct answer, and 0 points for the wrong answer. Furthermore, the
existing 25 items can be multiplied by 2 to reach a maximum value of
100.

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E. Conclusion
Assessing speaking is a confusing thing to do because it has many things to assess
and there is no official standard to determine which aspects should be tested.
Apart from the many elements that must be tested, assessing speaking also
requires preparation, management, and the right way of scoring. The thing that
can be done to overcome this is the task of limiting the aspects that are tested
when assessing speaking.
Assessing speaking has several types of tests such as limited response, guided
techniques, and also oral interviews. Finally, two assessment methods can be used
to assess the assessment, namely holistic assessment, and objective assessment.

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 References

Heaton, J. (1990). Writing English Language Test. London: Longman.

Luoma, S. (2004). Assesing Speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Madsen, H. (1983). Techniques in Testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Appendix

Speaking Test

Level : Beginner
Time : 45 minutes
Instructor : Shilvi Alfu Rohmatin

Part A

Instructions:

Questions 1-4 : Please look at the pictures to answer the questions.

1. What is the activity in the picture above?

2. Where is the activity happen?
3. How many people are involved in the activity?
4. What types of vehicles are used in this activity?

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Part B

Instructions:

Please read the situation below and be prepared to answer the “answer with”dialogue
in your own words while doing the role play.
Situation:
You go to the doctor for treatment. You have had abdominal pain for three days. Next,
you will tell what you feel to the doctor. I (the teacher) will act as a doctor.
Teacher : Good afternoon.
Student : Good afternoon, doc.
Teacher : Can I help you?
Student : Yes, [answer with by having stomatch pain]
Teacher : Hmm, I see. May I know your name and address?
Student : [answer with name and address]
Teacher : What have you been eating lately?
Student : [answer with a list of food names]
Teacher : Do you have gastric disease?
Student : [answer with "no"]
Teacher : Ok, I got the point. Let's check your condition.
The doctor finished checking the patient's condition.
Teacher : I have found the problem. I'll give you some medicine and come back if
nothing changes after a week.
Student : [leave the room and thanks the doctor]

Scoring Procedures:
Part A
The answers 1-4 will be scored as follows:
2 = correct
1 = almost correct
0 = incorrect

Part B

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The answers will be scored as follows:
5 = excellent
4 = good
3 = moderate
2 = poor
1 = very poor

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