TEST OF ORAL ABILITY

Tests of Oral Ability

The speaking ability is one of the most difficult language skills to measure. Speaking is such a common everyday activity and by putting it into a testing context, it immediately loses some of its authenticity.

Brown and Yule (1983) principles for testing speaking :

a)         Elicit speech which has a purpose.

b)         Elicit extended chunks of speech.

c)         Elicit structured or organised speech.

d)         Quantify the notion of communicative effectiveness.

Hughes (2002), test oral ability need to consider issues related to interactivity, authentic conditions for speech, and different spoken genres.

Grading of tests, therefore, must decide whether these micro skills will be assessed. The genre of the speech or conversation will also affect oral performance.

Test formats for testing speaking

 Weir (1990) has listed and discussed several of these formats as follows :

1.             Verbal essays
2.             Oral presentations
3.             Free interview
4.             Controlled interview
5.             Information transfer : Description of a picture sequence
6.             Information transfer : Questions on a single picture
7.             Information task
8.             Information gap - Student to teacher
9.             Information gap - Student to student
10.             Role Play

Oral presentations are somewhat similar to the verbal essay except that the candidates are allowed to prepare for the presentation.

 Both the free and controlled interview involve some form of conversation where examiners elicit spoken responses especially through a question and answer session. 

The contention that interviews are similar to authentic situations involving  employer and employee relations is somewhat  inaccurate as different profession are reported to emphasise different oral abilities.

Weir also describe two types of information transfer activities :

            a) Involves responding to a picture sequence

            b) Answer questions on a single picture.

Usage of pictures can be helpful as there is no language presented in the visual stimulus.

Candidates will therefore rely on their own knowledge of and proficiency in the language in order to communicate.

Weir’s description : 
- Student to student interaction : Alleviate the issue of unequal power and different levels of proficiency between interlocutors. 
- Student to teacher interaction : Weaker students might be disadvantaged especially if the conversation monopolized by the more proficient student.                     

In role play, candidates are expected to “play one of the roles in an interaction which might be reasonably expected of him in the real world” (Weir 1990: 79)

Role plays are easier if they present a plausible situation, Bailey (1998).

Figure 1 : Plausibility and experience as factors in performance on role play tasks (Bailey,1998)                         

Issues in assessing oral ability

Cohen (1994 : 278 - 279) cautions examiners involved in assessing oral ability of the need to establish several crucial dimensions of oral communication. These include:

            - The topic of the interaction

            - The level of formality

            - The number of participants

            - The relative status of the participants

            - The familiarity of the participants to each other

            - The gender of the participants

Cohen suggested that oral assessment should include a section that provides candidates with a chance to warm-up rehears.

Other suggestion, use of multiple measures of speaking ability and even the collection of taped data of the student’ oral ability in an oral portfolio.

Cohen also suggest that, oral assessments formats may be used to specify tasks  that  candidates are expected to perform such as describing objects, giving instructions and narrating a story.

Problems with item

It should be emphasised that the interview needs to be carefully structured so that  the aspects of the test which are considered important are covered with each students, and each student is tested in a similar way. 

It is not fair to the students if some of them are only required to make simple but   appropriate comments, while other equally good ones are forced to use complex language which betrays their inadequacies.

Interviewers also need to be trained to put candidates at ease, to get genuine conversation going without saying much themselves, to manage to appear interested in each interview and to know how to ask questions which will elicit the language required.