High School Speaking Test

[KiwiInKorea]

Hi there,

I'm at an all boy's high school and am required to create and grade the end of year speaking tests!

I am a little petrified as I want to grade as accurately and as fairly as possible and have students sit the tests in identical conditions but if it's anything like last semester, this will prove difficult for a variety of reasons.

Would love some advice on a) what kind of speaking tests you find work best (e.g. one-on-one interview, pairs of students conversing or a presentation) and b) how you establish the grades.

Rubrics are a great idea but still have room for error. In particular, I found it really hard last time when students perhaps would be rather low level compared to what they could be saying to be 100% perfect but relative to their other classmates, could make themselves understood a lot better. What is the appropriate way to give the grade?

Lucky last question, one co-teacher suggested teaching a bunch of different dialogues over the weeks and then have students perform one of the dialogues (chosen at random) in pairs for the exam. Pairs would be selected at random on the day and dialogues would be manipulated by students a little (e.g. Would you like to have dinner/watch a movie/have lunch? etc). To me, this is just memorization, surely there would be hardly any variation in the marks given. And again, how would you mark this?

Happy Chuseok everybody!

Cheers

[sheila]

My school is currently doing a speaking test with the theme: People who overcame their hardships (ex. Helen Keller). The students had to find information about that person and do a one minute speech.  If they didn't have it memorized, they could look at their papers for a reduced score.  The time limit was one minute and it was graded on contents, fluency, accuracy, attitude, and time. 1-10 points total.  I didn't choose to do the speaking test this way, as I have just gotten here, but it seemed to be effective.  Also, my co-teachers all had different ways they wanted it done like in the classroom in front of everyone or in the English office with no one around.  The biggest thing was limiting it to one minute because otherwise you run out of time.  Good luck with whatever you decide to do~!

[sonya]

Check out the following blog on speaking tests....LOTS of information here...this is part one, be sure to go on for more.  He also is at an all boys high school.

http://kimchi-icecream.blogspot.com/2010/07/eflesl-native-english-teacher-speaking.html

Sonya

[taebaekluke]

I did a speaking 'test' last term, and will be doing one again this term.

I just had it as an interview format - the class sat inside the english room practicing in groups of 2 with a sample questions/answers sheet i gave them while I sat outside on our 'cosy zone' sofas talking to each student one-on-one for 3 minutes. With 30 kids in a class this took up 2 periods, so i got it over with in a week. It worked very well, and I structured the questions to reflect the topics we had covered in class through the term as well as the sample dialogues in their textbooks. The students worked very hard practicing the sample questions, as they knew it was going to effect their grade (10% of their term english grade).

I think mixing an interview up with a presentation is a great idea - you could have the kids in the room working on their presentations while you give the interviews outside. some of the most successful classes i've had have been ones that included an element of presentations. they seem to enjoy having their classmates listen to them in this way.

I'll attach my sample interview sheet and grading sheet for one of my classes. The interview sheet was double-sided, so they could ask questions of eachother and then if they get stuck check for sample answers. Underlined parts needed to be changed.

I graded them on Fluency, Sentence Structure and Originality.

They're the three things i've noticed with Korean high schoolers - a lot of them can chat away for hours (probably more minutes..) once you get them going but their sentence structure is non-existent. I have a couple of students who have really bad english, but are great communicators, and i can have great conversations with them in broken english. Thus I added originality for them. And fluency was for the high fliers. I marked each section out of 10, and then gave them percentages.

Hope that helps.

[KiwiInKorea]

Thanks very much to everyone who gave advice :-) Being that it's exam week, I'm getting the chance to look into which test formats and rubric are best for my students. Thanks.

[KiwiInKorea]

Was on my way to finishing the speaking tests and now I've been informed that the test must be the students being given a picture, and having to describe it, eek.

I'll go over present continuous and prepositions etc but unsure how to grade this kind of test. Does anyone have any rubrics that would assess a student describing a picture? Would appreciate any advice on this kind of test.

Cheers.

[c_makitalo]

Hey everyone
The speaking test was just sprung on me for next week so I was looking for rubrics/marking criteria.  I found some ideas for what to mark on but no ready mady rubric/matrix.  I will have to post it once I have completed it.So this is a shout out for anyone who has any made for speaking tests. Anyone??
Thanks.

[carlita]

this might help....


http://www.roobrix.com/

[jungnuri2]

I've just been asked to do a speaking test for grade 1s in their 2-3rd week of school. I wouldn't have taught anything by then, so any advice on how I should go about doing this? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Darkeru]

The way my co-teachers liked doing this, was doing a 2 minute interview, based on 3-5 questions from a list given to the students. It was accessed on fluency and accuracy, amongst other things. This was middle school though, so perhaps don't give them the question list or just give them very general topics.

Speaking tests seem difficult, with so little time and so many students. It's also difficult to grade them accurately.

[mntrejo]

It is about that time for speech tests. When I first started I was really confused as to how I wanted to run my speech tests. Attached is the speech test proposal I gave my co teachers, the speech test guidelines I gave to my students, and the grading rubric that will be given to students after the tests are completed.

[Ktrumper]

this was great to determine speaking comprehension, thanks

[megu]

Does anyone have advice on how to set a rubric/marking criteria for a high school speaking test?

In my case, students can get a maximum of 15 points for the test.  It will be individual interviews lasting approx 3 mins, the questions will be based on the lessons from the textbook we have covered so far. I'm grading the students based on the content of their answers as well as fluency/clarity/accuracy, but unsure how to balance this....

Any advice would be very welcome!

[carlita]

check out

roobrix.com

I used it and it helped me quite a bit

[bebouchard]

I will also have to do speaking tests in my high school next month.

I have made the following guidelines for myself. I haven't included number scores, but basically level one would be fifteen points, and level five would be zero or one point. The top level score means the student can basically perform like a native speaker. The bottom level means the student has that frozen, deer-in-the-headlights look and can't really make an intelligible response. The others, obviously, fall somewhere in between. I'm also just trying to figure out how to grade my students, so I'd welcome any feedback to these criteria.

Level 1

• Student is able to answer the question at length and provides additional detail.
  Student speaks with confidence and without pauses or hesitation.
  Student’s pronunciation is clear and understandable, making few, if any, errors in pronunciation or stress.
  Student makes only minor structural errors and displays ability to self-correct and use reparative strategies.

Level 2

• Student answers the question somewhat at length provides some additional detail.
  Student speaks with confidence, with only short pauses or hesitation.
  Student’s pronunciation is clear and understandable, with only minor error in pronunciation or stess.
  Student makes some structural errors, but is able to self-correct and use reparative strategies

Level 3

• Student answers the question in short phrases or simple sentences.
  Student pauses or hesitates occasionally when speaking.
  Student’s pronunciation is generally understandable, with some mispronounced words or misplaced stress.
  Student makes some structural errors, may need prompting from teacher to continue.

Level 4

• Student answers the question with short phrases or one-word responses..
  Student pauses or hesitates frequently when speaking
  Student’s pronunciation may be difficult to understand, with frequently mispronounced words and misplaces stress.
  Student makes frequent structural errors, and is unable to self-correct. Student needs frequent prompting from teacher to continue.

Level 5

• Student is unable to answer the question, answers incoherently, or incorrectly.
  Student pauses or hesitates for a long time when speaking.
  Student’s speech is difficult to understand, with frequently mispronounced words and misplaces stress.
  Student makes frequent structural errors and is unable to self-correct. Student gets “stuck” and may be unable to complete answer.

[megu]

Great, thanks for your help!

[kaymac]

This rubric is great! I am wondering what people do for speaking tests. I have to give one really soon and not sure how to proceed. I'm only giving a mark out of ten.

[Jozigirl]

These are the score sheets I use with my second grade high school students.  They're almost identical because I only change certain criteria as needed.  The total mark is always out of 25.

I've also included a handout I gave my students on presentation guidelines.

[makeshiftb0y]

Here's one I made for the tests I just gave. Mine was out of 10 points.

For the test itself, I had three topics. I had a co-teacher translate a description for each for me. I had each description on separate pieces of paper and put them face down on the table. I told the student to pick one and read it. We then had a short conversation. Topics were things from chapters previous studied, things such as shopping, interests and club activities, and describing personality.

[Jozigirl]

This is a rubric that I use for more advanced students but it can be easily adjusted.