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ASSESSING SPEAKING INRODUCTION Assessment is an ongoing pedagogical process that includes a number of evaluates acts on the part of teacher (Brown, 2007: 317). When a learner responds to a question, offer a comment, or tries out a new word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an evaluation of the students performance. It is in line with Spratt, et al. (2005: 102) who defines assessment as a process of collecting information about learners performance in order to make judgments about their learning. One of the most important areas of language testing and assessment is the assessment of speaking. What is Speaking? Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997 in Mata). According to Kramsch (1986) cited in Mata (2011) Speaking means anticipating the listeners response and possible misunderstandings, and arriving at the closest possible match between intended, perceived, and anticipated meanings. Assessing Speaking Characteristics of Spoken language is different from written language for many reasons. One important reason is that it usually has to be understood immediately whereas written language can be read many times. For that reason, spoken language has many different features. Spoken language has the following characteristics (Halliday, 1989, p. 31 in Mata): Variation in speed

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(generally faster than writing) Loudness or quietness Gestures - body language Intonation Stress Rhythm Pitch range Pausing and phrasing. BASIC TYPES OF SPEAKING: 1. Imitative : The ability to simply parrot back (imitate) a word or a phrase or possibly a sentence (Brown, 2003: 141). Examples: Word, phrase,sentence repetition. 2. Intensive : The production of short stretches of oral language designed to demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical, or phonological reliationships (such as prosodic elements- intonation, stress, rhythm, juncture) (Brown, 2003: 141). Examples: directed response (Tell me be went home. Tell him to come see me.), reading aloud (for either pernunciation or fluency), oral sentence completion (yesterday, I___), oral cloze prosedure (Yesterday, I_____ to the grocery store.), dialogue completion (T: May I help you? S:_____.), directed response (What did you do last weekend?), picture-cued eliciation of a grammatical item (e. g., comparatives), translation ([into the L2] of a word, phrase, or sentence or two) (Brown, 2001: 351-352). 3. Responsive : (Briefly interacting with the interlocutor) Responsive assessment tasks include interaction and test comprehension but at the somewhat limited level of very short conversations, standard greetings and small talk, simple requests and comments, and the like (Brown, 2003: 141). Example : picturecued elicition of response or description, map-cued elicitation of directions (How do I get to the post office?), question and answer- open ended (How do you like this weather?), questions eliciation (Ask me about my hobbies and

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interests.), eliciation of instructions (Whats the recipe for lasagna?), paraphrasing (of a short narrative or phone massage) (Brown, 2001: 351-352). The stimulus is almost always a spoken prompt (in order to preserve authenticity),with perhaps only one or two follow-up questions or retorts:

A. Mary: Excuse me,do you have the time? Doug: Yeah.Nine-fifteen.

B. T: What is the most urgent environmental problem today? S: I would say massive deforestion.

C. Jeff: Hey,Steff,hows it going? Stef: Not bad,and yourself? Jeff: lm bad. Stef:Cool.Okay.gotta go.

4. Interactive : The difference between responsive and interactive speaking is the length and complexity of the interaction, which sometimes includes multiple exchanges and/or multiple participant. Interaction in the form of either transactional language or interpersonal exchanges is tested. (In the three dialogues above, A and B are transactional, and C is interpersonal. Examples: oral interviews, role plays, games, discussions and conversations (Brown, 2003: 142). Transactional (dialogue)

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Transactional language, carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information, is an extended form of responsive language. Conversations for example, may have more of a negotiative nature to them then does responsive speech: T: What is the main idea in this essay? S: The United Nations should have more authority. T: More authority than what? S: Than it does right now. T: What do you mean? S: Well, for example the UN should have the power to force certain countries to destroy its nuclear weapons T: You dont think the UN has that power now? S: Obviously not. Several countries are currently manufacturing nuclear bombs. Such conversations could readily be part of group work activity as well (Brown, 2001). Interpersonal (dialogue) Interpersonal language, carried out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information. These conversations are a little trickier for learners because they can involve some or all of the following factors: A casual register Colloquial language Emotionally charged language

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Slang Ellipsis Sarcasm A covert agenda For example: Amy: Hi, Bob, hows it going? Bob: Oh,so-so.

Amy: Not a great weekend, huh? Bob: week. Amy: What are you talking about? Bob: I think you know perfectly well what Im talking about. Well, far be it from me to criticize, but Im pretty miffed about last

Amy: Oh, that..... How come you get so bent out of shape over something like that? Bob: Well, whose fault was it, huh?

Amy: Oh, wow, this is great. Wonderful. Back to square one. For crying out loud, Bob, I thought wed settled this before. Well, what more can I say? Learners would need to learn how such features as the relationship between Interlocutors, casual style, and sarcasm are coded liguistically in this Conversation (Brown, 2001: 329-330).

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5. Extensive (monologue)

: Extensive oral production tasks include speeches,

oral presentations,and story-telling, during which the opportunity for oral interaction from listeners is either highly limited (perhaps to nonverbal responses) or ruled out together (Brown,2003: 142). Example: oral presentations (in academic or professional contexts), picturecued (extensive) story telling, retelling a story or news event, translation (into the L2) of an extended text (short story, news article) (Brown, 2001: 352). MICRO- AND MACROSKILLS OF SPEAKING Microskills in Brown (2001: 328): 1. produce differences among English phonemes and allophonic variants 2. produce chunks of language of different lengths. 3. produce English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions, rhythmic structure, and intonation contours. 4. produce reduced form of words and phrases. 5. Use an adequate number of lexical units (words) to accomplish pragmatic purposes. 6.produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery. 7.Monitor ones own oral production and use various strategic devices- pauses, fillers, self- correction, backtracking- to enhance the clarity of the message. 8. Use grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization), word order, patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.

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9. Produce speech in natural constituents: in appropriate phrases, pause groups, breath groups, and sentence constituents. 10. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical forms. Macroskills in Brown (2001: 328): 1. Use cohesive devices in spoken discourse. 2. Appropriately accomplish communicative functions according to situations, participants, and goals. 3. Use appropriate style, registers, implicature, redundancies, pragmatic conventions, conversation rules, floor- keeping and yielding, interrupting, and other sociolinguistic features in face-to-face conversations. 4. Convey links and connections between events and communicate such relations as focal and peripheral ideas, events and feelings, new information and given information, generalization and exemplification. 5. Convey facial features, kinetics, body language, and other nonverbal cues along with verbal language 6. Develop and use a battery of speaking strategies, such as emphasizing key words, rephrasing, providing a context for interpreting the meaning of words, appealing for help, and accurately assessing how well your interlocutor is understanding you. Three important issues to consider as you set out to design speaking tasks (Brown, 2003: 143-144):

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1. No speaking task s capable of isolating the single skill of oral production. 2. Eliciting the specific criterion you have designated for a task can be tricky because the beyond the word level, spoken language offers a number of productive options to test takers. 3. Because of the above two characteristics of oral production assessment, it is important to carefully specify scoring procedures for a response so that you achieve as high reliability as possible. Evaluating and scoring speaking Tasks One or more of at least six possible criteria may be your target: Pernunciation Fluency Vocabulary Grammar Discourse features Task

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASK IMITATIVE SPEAKING Test takers hear:

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Repeat after me: Beat [pause] bit [pause] Bat [pause] vat [pause] I bought a boat yesterday. The glow of the candle is growing. When did they go on vacation? Do you like coffee? Test-takers repeat the stimulus. Scoring scale for repetition task: 2 acceptable pronunciation 1- comprehensible, partially correct pronunciation 0- silence, seriously incorrect pronunciation etc. etc. etc.

PHONEPASS TEST

Phone Pass is an automated language proficiency test devised by Ordinate Corporation that takes place over the phone. It offers three kinds of test: SET 10, SET 5 and Junior SET. It assesses the ability of non-native English speakers to understand spoken English and to respond to the utterances (Ribeiro & Becker, 2004). An example of a popular test that uses imitative (as well as intensive) production tasks is PhonePass, a widely used, commercially available speaking test in many countries.

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The PhonePass test elicits computer-assisted oral production over a telephone. Test-takers read aloud, repeat sentences, say words, and answer questions. With a downloadable test sheet as a reference, test-takers are directed to telephone a designated number and listen for directions. The test has five sections (Brown, 2003).

Part A: Reading

Test-takers read aloud selected sentences from among those printed on the test sheet. In this section, you are asked to read sentences at random. The test is looking for the following:

Correct pronunciation of vowels, consonants, and consonant clusters

Correct sentence stress with content words receiving primary stress and function words unstressed

Correct word stress based on the rules weve studied in Focus on Pronunciation

Use of reductions in unstressed words or syllables

EXAMPLES:

1.

When George borrowed my pen, he forgot to give it back. With my pen gone, I couldnt write anything at all.

2.

3.

So, I decided to buy a whole box of pens just like the one he took.

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4.

Now if I lose a pen, Ill have another one immediately.

5.

Buying bicycle parts without any expertise can be difficult.

6.

Products can range widely in price and yet not be very different.

7.

Even worse, some accessories are useless and could even be dangerous.

8.

Bike shop sales assistants are not always helpful to the average rider.

9.

For their tenth wedding anniversary, Jim surprised his wife with a trip.

10. He managed to book the same hotel they had on their honeymoon.

11. This time, though, they could afford a few more luxuries. 12. And this time, his wife didnt fall and break her ankle.

Part B: Listen and Repeat

Test-takers repeat sentences dictated over the phone. This section asks you to listen to a sentence and repeat it. The section is testing the following:

If you can hear discreet sounds during fast speech How you process syllable reductions in words If you can distinguish between minimal pairs or sounds that sound very similar

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If you can tell the difference between a question, command, and statement based on intonation.

Your knowledge of vocabulary

EXAMPLES

1.

The game started up.

2.

This piece has been played before. Im not used to this food.

3.

4.

Many people believe her. Lets take the bus to Fifth.

5.

6.

Math needs concentration. If its expensive, I wont go. Its taken me more time than planned.

7.

8.

9.

Give me a call next week when you get the package.

10. He wouldnt change the date, so we had to go on Tuesday.

11. Why do so few people take this road?

12. Every now and then she sent me a letter.

13. His noisy television kept the baby crying all night.

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14. Younger teens seldom understand why. 15. One of the most difficult situations in which Ive been involved is firing employees.

16. The clerk requested a new one every five minutes.

Part C: Short Answer Questions

Test-takers answer questions with a single word or a short phrase of two or three words. This section wants you to answer a question using a short answer usually one word or one phrase. The section is looking for:

Your knowledge of vocabulary Your knowledge of question word order Your knowledge of general grammar constructions including parallel forms (neither/nor, either/or) and comparatives and superlatives.

Your ability to distinguish word reductions in spoken English

EXAMPLES:

1.

How many legs does a table have?

2.

Neither Mary nor Dave could go. Who went?

3.

I have half a dozen exercises to do. How many do I have to do? Marks problems were too numerous to be resolved. Was Mark

4.

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worried or relieved?

5.

Would you expect to see an automobile in a house or in a garage?

6.

Which requires a camera? A painting or a photograph? What is 12:00 oclock P.M. called? Whats the infant form of a dog?

7.

8.

9.

Does a house have fewer rooms or chimneys?

10. Are meat and fish solids or liquids?

11. What month comes before August?

12. Which is faster? A car or a truck? 13. Maria was enraged by the schools announcement. Was she content or angry?

14. How many sides does a rectangle have?

15. Which is more like steel? Metal or plastic?

Part D: Sentence Builds

Test-takers hear three word groups in random order and must link them in a correctly ordered sentence. In this section, you are asked to build a sentence based on the parts of the sentence given to you in a random order. The section is making sure you can:

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Understand the basic sentence construction in English including proper English word order

Understand the construction of clauses and phrases in English Understand the vocabulary so that you can put the sentence into a logical order based on the meanings of the nouns in relation to verbs, adjectives in relation to nouns, etc.

EXAMPLES: me.to stayhe commanded earlythe parkwe left tookthe later trainMrs. Roberts my fatherthis storymight amuse he didnt reportthe accidentwhod caused why he wasI wonderedmore careful then until laterto go therewe didnt choose was waiting foreach persona quick answer the top of itseriously scratchedhad been

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10. they askedwould get there on timeif the delivery

Part E: Open-Ended Questions

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Test-takers have 30 seconds to talk about their opinion about some topic that is dictated over the phone. Topic center on family, preferences, and choices.

These questions are designed to combine all the skills from the above sections. Vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, stress and intonation are all important components of your answers. The questions are usually related to your life or are hypothetical situations that require you to answer a what if question. The questions also test your ability to classify information, make comparisons, and discuss causes and/or effects. You have approximately 30 seconds to respond to each question.

EXAMPLES:

If you won a large sum of money, how would you use it?

What does city life offer that rural life does not?

What characteristics make a good boss?

Do you think driving your own car or public transportation is a better way to travel locally? Explain. At what times do you think it is appropriate to tell white lies?

Is it better to be physically attractive or intelligent? Explain.

Example of result or score report from PhonePass Test (Chapelle &

Douglas, 2006)

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DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASK INTENSIVE SPEAKING At the intensive level, test-takers are prompted to produce short stretches of discourse (no more than a sentence) through which they demonstrate linguistic ability at a specified level of language. 1. Direct response tasks. In this types of task, the test administrator elicits (gets the test takers to produce) a particular grammatical form or a transformation of a sentence. Such tasks are clearly mechanical and not communicative, but they do require minimal processing of meaning in order to produce the correct grammatical output. Example: test-takers hear: tell me he went home. Tell me that you like rock music. Tell me that you arent interested in tennis Tell him to come to my office at noon. Remind him what time it is. 2. read-aloud tasks:

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Intensive reading-aloud taks a paragraph or two. This technique is easily administratered by selecting a passage and by recording the test-takers out put ; the scoring is relatively easy because all of the test-takers oral production is controlled.

Paragraph example : Despite the decrease in size-and, some would say, quality of cultural world, there still remain strong differences between the usual British and American writing styles. The question is, how do you get your message across? English prose conveysits most novel ideas as if they were timeless truths, while American writing exaggerates : the latter, overstatement. There are also disadvanteges to each characteristic approach. Readers who are used to being sreamed at may not listen when someone chooses to whisper politely. At the same time, the individual who is used to a quiet manner may reject a series of loud imperatives. Read loud taks (scoring): The scoring scale for this passage provided a four-point scale for pronunciation are for fluency, as shown in the box below. PRONUNCIATION : Points: 0,0-0,4 : Frequent phonemic errors and forign stress and intonation patterns that cause the speaker to be unintelligible. 0,5-1,4 : Frequent phonemic errors and foreign stress and intonation pattern that cause the speaker to be occasionally unintelligible. 1,5-2-4 : Some consistent phonemic errors and foreign stress and intonation patterns, but the speaker is intelligeble.

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2,5-3,0 : Occasional non-native pronunciation errors, but the speaker is always intelligible. Fluency : Points : 0.0-0.4 : speech is so halting and fragmentary or has such a non-native flow that intelligibility is virtually impossible. 0.5-1.4 : Numerous non-native pauses and/or a non-native flow so that interieres with inteligibility. 1.5-2.4 : Some non-native pauses but with a more nearly native flow so that the pauses do not interfere with intelligibility. 2.5-3.0 : Speech is smooth and effortless, closely approximating that of a native speaker. 3. Sentence/Dialogue completion Taks Oral Quetionnaires Another technique for trgeting intensive aspects of language requires test-takers to read dialogue in which one speakes lines have been omitted. Test-takers are first given time to read through the dialogue to et its gist and to think about appropriate lines to fill in. Then as the teacher, or test administrator product one part orally, the test-takers responds. Example: in a deparment task Salesperson: May I help ? Customer : Salesperson : Okay, what size do you wear? Customer : Salesperson : Hmmm, How about this green sweater here?

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Customer : Salesperson :Oh well, it you dont like green, what color would you like? Customer : Salesperson : How about this one ? Coustomer : Salesperson : Great Customer : Salesperson : its on sale today for $39.95. Customer : Salesperson : Sure we take visa. Master card, and American Express. Customer : Taks-takers Respond with appropriate lines

4. Picture-cued Taks One of the more popular ways to elicit oral language performance at both intensive and extensive levels is a picture-cued stimulus that requires a description from the test-takers. Pictyre may be very simple, designed to elicit word or aphrase ; somewhat more elaborate and busy or composed of series that tells a story or incident. Picture-cued elicitation of minimal pairs

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Takes-takers see :

Test takers hear : (Test administrator poins to each picture in succession) Whats this? Grammatical categories may be cued by picture. In the following squences comparatives are elicited: Picture-cued elicitation of comparatives (Brown & sahni, 1994,p.135) Test takers see :

Test takers hear :Use a comparative form to compare these object. Picture- cued elicitation of nouns, negative responses, number, and location (Brown & Sahni, 1994,p.116) Test takers see : Test takers

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Test-takers: 1. (Point to the table) Whats this? 2. (Point to the end table) Whats this ? 3. (Point to several chairs) What are these ? 4. (Point to the clock) Whats that? 5. (Point to both lamps) what are those ? 6. (Point to the table) is this a chair ? 7. (Point to the lamps) Are these clocks ? 8. (Point to the women standing up) Is she sitting ? 9. (Point to the whole picture) How many chairs are there ? 10. (Point to the whole picture) How many women are there ? 11. (Point to the TV) Where is the TV? 12. (Point to the chair beside the lamp) Where is this chair ? 13. (Point to one person) Describe this person Picture-cued elicitation of responses and description (Brown & Sahni, 1994,p.162)

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Test takers see :

Test takers hear : 1. (Point to the painting on the right) When was this one painted ? (Point to both) which painting is older? 2. (Point to the painting on the left) How much does this cost? Which painting is ,one expensive? 3. Which painting would you buy?why? 4. Persuade me to buy it. 5. Describe the kind of paintings you like (in general). Map-cued elicitatation of giving directions (Brown & Sahni,1994.p 169) Test- takers see :

Test takers hear :

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You are at first and Jefferson Streets (point o he spot). People ask you for diretions to get to five different places. Listen to their questions,then give directions. 1. Please give me directions to the bank. 2. Please give me directions to Macys Department Store. 3. How do I get to the post office? 4. Can you tell me where the booktore is? 5. Please tell me how to get to the library. Picture-ceud scoring Scorig responses on picture-cued task varies, depending on the expected perfomance criteria. The tasks above that asked just for one-word or simplesentence responses can be evaluated simply as correct or incorrect. The threepoint rubric (2,1.and 0) suggested earlier may apply as well, with these modifications ; Scoring scale for intensive tasks 2 Comprehensible; acceptable target form 1 Comprehensible ; partially correct target form 0 Silence,orseriously incorrect target form

5.Translation Is a communicative device in contexts where English is not a native lang. English can be called on to be interpreted as a second language. Conditions may vary from an instant translation of a native word, phrase, or sentence to a translation of longer texts. Advantages: the control of the output & easily specified scoring.

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Role Play : Role Play It is a popular pedagogical activity in communicative language-teaching classes. The test administrator must determine the assessment objectives of the role play, then devise a scoring technique that pinpoints those objectives. Examples: Pretend that youre a tourist asking me for directions, You are buying a necklace from me in a flea market, and want a lower price. Discussions & Conversations : Discussions & Conversations As informal techniques to assess learners, D & C offer a level of authenticity and spontaneity that other assessment techniques may not provide: clarifying, questioning, paraphrasing, intonation patterns, body language, eye contact, and other sociolinguistic factors.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASK RESPONSIVE SPEAKING Assessment of responsive tasks involves brief interactions with an interlocutor, differing from intensive tasks in the increased creativity given to the test takers and from interactive tasks the somewhat limited length of utterances. 1. Question and Answer Question-and-answer tasks can consist of one or two question from an interview, or they can make up a portion of a whole battery of question and prompts in an oral interview.

Examples: What is this called in English? ( to elicit a predetermined correct response) What are the steps governments should take, if any, to stem the rate of

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de-forestation in tropical countries? ( given more opportunity to produce meaningful language in response)

Questions Eliciting Open-Ended Responses : Test takers hear : What do you think about the weather today? Why did you choose your academic major? Personal questions: Have you ever been to the U. S. before? What other countries have you visited? Why did you go there? What did you like best about it? Test takers respond with a few sentences at most. 2.Giving Instructions & Directions : Giving Instructions & Directions Examples: how to operate an appliance how to put a bookshelf together, or how to create a dish. Scoring: based on Comprehensibility Specified grammatical/discourse categories.

Example: Test-takers hear: Describe how to make a typical dish Whats a good recipe for making _____? How do you access email on a PC computer? How do I get from ___ to ____ in your city? Test-takers respond.

Eliciting Instructions or Directions : Eliciting Instructions or Directions The task should require the test-taker to produce at least 5 or a phone message or 6 sentences. Use familiar topics and test linguistic competence. Paraphrasing, e.g. paraphrasing a story Example of Paraphrase Story: Test takers hear: Paraphrase the following little story in your own word. My weekend in the mountains was fabulous. The first day we backpacked into the

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mountains and climbed about 2,000 fee. The hike was strenuous but exhilarating. By sunset we found these beautiful alpine lakes and made camp there. The sunset was amazingly beautiful. The next tow days we just kicked back and did little day hikes, some rock climbing, bird watching, swimming, and fishing. The hike out on the next day was really easy- alldownhill-and the scenery was incredible. Test- takers respond with two or three sentence. Example of Paraphrashing a phone message Test takers hear : Please tell jeff that Im tied up in traffic so Im going to be about a half hour late for the nine oclock meeting. And ask him to bring up our question about the employee benefit plan.if he wants to check in with me on my my cell phone, have him 415-338-3095. Test Taker respond with two or three sentence. 3.TEST OF SPOKEN ENGLISH Somewhere stradding responsive, interactive, and extensive speaking tasks another popular commercial oral production assessment, the Test of spoken English (TSE). The TSE is a 20-minute audiotaped test of oral language ability with academic or professional enviroment.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASK INTERACTIVE SPEAKING

A. INTERVIEW Oral production assessment oral interview tape recorded interview

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TWO KINDS OF INTERVIEW a. Placement Interview Designed to get a quick spoken sample from a student in order to verify placement into course b. Comprehensive Interview (OPI) Designed to cover predetermined oral production contexts and may require the better part of an hour.

MICHAEL CANALE (1984) FOUR MANDATORY STAGES

1. WARM UP The interviewer direct mutual introductions, helps the test-taker become comfortable with the situation, appraises the test taker of the format and allays anxieties. 2. No scoring takes place.

LEVEL CHECK The interviewer stimulates the test taker to respond using expected or predicted forms and functions. Questions are design to elicit grammatical categories, discourse structure, vocabulary usage and/or sociolinguistic factors.

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This stage gives the interviewer a picture of the test-takers extroversion, readiness to speak and confidence.

Linguistic target criteria are scored in this phase.

3. PROBE Challenge test-takers to go to the heights of their ability, to extend beyond the limits of the interviewers expectation through increasingly difficult questions. Through probe items, the interviewer discovers the ceiling or limitation of the test-taker proficiency. At the lower level of proficiency. It may simply demand higher range of vocabulary and grammar. At the higher level of proficiency. It will typically ask the test taker to give an opinion or a value judgment, to discuss his/her field of specialization, to recount a narrative, or to respond to questions that are wondered in complex form. 4. WIND-DOWN The interviewer encourages the test-taker to relax with some easy questions This part is not scored.

The success of an oral interview will depend on: 1. Clearly specifying administrative procedures of the assessment (practicality)

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2. Focusing the questions and probes on the purpose of the assessment (validity). 3. Appropriately eliciting an optimal amount and quality of oral production from the test-taker (biased for best performance).

4. Creating a consistent, workable scoring system (reliability). TWO-ON-ONE FORMAT B. Role Play 1. It frees students to be more creative in their linguistic output. 2. It allows some rehearsal time so that students can map out what they are going to say. 3. It has the effect of lowering anxieties as students can. 4. As an assessment device, role play opens some windows of opportunity for test taker to use discourse that might otherwise be difficult to elicit. 5. Certain personal, strategic, and linguistic factors come into the foreground of the test-takers oral abilities. 6. Role play takes test-takers beyond simple intensive and responsive levels to a level of creativity and complexity that approaches real-world pragmatics. C. Discussions and Conversations Discussion may be especially appropriate tasks through which to elicit and observe such abilities as: 1. Topic nomination, maintenance and termination

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2. Attention getting, interrupting, floor holding, control; 3. Clarifying, questioning paraphrasing 4. Comprehension signals (nodding, uh-uhh, hmm, etc) 5. Negotiating meaning 6. Intonation patterns for pragmatic effect 7. Kinesics, eye contact, phonemics, body language 8. Politeness, formality and other sociolinguistic factors.

D. Games Such tasks have wandered away from the traditional notion of an oral production test and may even be well beyond assessment. As assessment, the key is to specify a set of criteria and a reasonably practical and reliable scoring method. E. Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Originally known as the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) test. OPI is designed to elicit pronunciation, fluency and integrative ability, sociolinguistic and cultural knowledge, grammar, and vocabulary.

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Performance is judged by the examiner to be at one of ten possible levels on the ACTFL- designed proficiency guidelines for speaking : superior advanced intermediate - Novice

The ACTFL (American Council on Teaching Foreign Language) Proficiency guidelines may appear to be just another form of the FSI

Level described earlier. Holistic evaluation is still implied, and in this case four levels are described. On closer scrutiny, however, they offer a markedly different set of descriptors. 1. They are more reflective of a unitary definition of ability 2. For classroom assessment purposes, the six FSI categories more appropriately describe the components of oral ability than do the ACTFL holistic score and therefore offer better wash back potential. 3. The ACTFL requirement for specialized training renders the OPI less useful for classroom adaptation. CRITICISM ON OPI Valdman (1988, p.125) From a Vygotskyan perspective, the OPI forces test-takers into a closed system where, because the interviewer is endowed with full social control, they are unable to negotiate a social world. For example, the cannot nominate topics for discussion, they cannot switch formality levels, they cannot display a full

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range of stylistic maneuver. The total control the OPI interviewers possess is reflected by the parlance of the test methodology In short, the OPI can only inform us of how learners can deal with an artificial social imposition rather than enabling us to predict how they would be likely to manage authentic linguistic interactions with target- language native speaker. Bachman (1988, p.149) pointed out that the validity of the OPI simply cannot be demonstrated because it confounds abilities with elicitation procedures in its design, and it provides only a single rating, which has no basis in either theory or research.

DESIGNING ASSESSMENT: EXTENSIVE SPEAKING

Extensive speaking tasks involve complex, relatively lengthy stretches of discourse. They are frequently variations on monologues, usually with minimal verbal interaction. A. ORAL PRESENTATION The rules for effective assessment must be involved: a. Specify the criterion b. Set appropriate tasks

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c. Elicit optimal output d. Establish practical, reliable scoring procedures Oral Presentation a checklist or grid is a common means of scoring or evaluation. Holistic scores are tempting to use for their apparent practicality, but they may obscure the variability of performance across several subcategories, especially they two major components of content and delivery. Its authenticity can be supported in that all of the items on the list contribute to an effective presentation. The wash back effect of such a checklist will be enhanced by written comments from the teacher, a conference with the teacher, peer evaluations using the same form, and self-assessment. B. PICTUREDCUED STORY -TELLING One of the most common techniques for eliciting oral production is through visual pictures, photographs, diagrams, and charts. As the example, look at picture page.

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C. Retelling a Story, News Event Test-takers hear or read a story or news event that they are asked to retell. It is a longer stretch of discourse and a different genre. The objectives is to produce a number of oral discourse features (communicating sequences and relationships of events, stress and emphasis patterns, expression in the case of a dramatic story), fluency, and interaction with the hearer.

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D. Translation (of Extended Prose) Translation of words, phrases, or short sentences was mentioned under the category of intensive speaking. Here, longer texts are presented for the test-taker to read in the native language and then translate into English. Those texts could come in many forms: dialogue, directions for assembly of a product, a synopsis of a story or play or movie, directions on how to find something on a map, and other genres. The advantage of translation is in the control of the content, vocabulary, and to some extent, the grammatical and discourse feature. The disadvantage is that translation of longer texts is a highly specialized skill

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REFERENCES Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, Second Edition. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Brown, H. Douglas. 2003. Language Assessment Principles and Classroom Practices. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Chapelle, A & Douglas, Dan. 2006. Has PhonePass Pdf. http:///www.everibeiro.com. Accessed on 13/05/05 ________. What is the PHONEPASS test testing? http://www.heathermeloche.com/PhonePass%20Materials/What%20is%20the%2 0PHONEPASS%20test%20testing.htm. Mata. 2011. Assessing Speaking. http://www.slideshare.net/nairubymata/assessing-speaking-skills. Accessed on 13/05/05. Ribero, Eve & Becker, Tony. 2004. Second Language Assessment and Evaluation. Georgia : Georgia State University Press. .

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