1.

The Nature of Speaking

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. There are three kinds of speaking situations in which we find ourselves:

interactive, partially interactive, and non-interactive

Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which we are alternately listening and speaking, and in which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner. Some speaking situations are partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to a live audience, where the convention is that the audience does not interrupt the speech. The speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge from the expressions on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is being understood. Some few speaking situations may be totally non-interactive, such as when recording a speech for a radio broadcast . Here are some of the micro-skills involved in speaking. The speaker has to:

pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough so that people can distinguish them. This includes making tonal distinctions. use stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is said.

use the correct forms of words. This may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case, or gender. put words together in correct word order. use vocabulary appropriately. use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship to the conversation partner. make clear to the listener the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses. make the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information. make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what you are saying.

2. Speaking Test Items

Face to Face Tests

Speaking I
Lecturer: Describe a class you have taken in school and explain why the class was important to you. Preparation time: 15 seconds Response time: 45 seconds

Speaking 2
Lecturer: Some universities require first-year students to live in dormitories on campus. Others allow students to live off campus. Which policy do you think is better for first-year students and why? Include details and examples in your explanation. Preparation time: 15 seconds

Response time: 45 seconds

Integrated Communication Tests Speaking 3

City University is planning to increase tuition and fees. Read the announcement about the increase from the president of City University. You will have 45 seconds to read the announcement. Begin reading now. Reading Time: 45 seconds Announcement from the president The university has decided to increase tuition and fees for all students by approximately 8 percent next semester. For the past 5 years, the tuition and fees have remained the same, but it is necessary to increase them now for several reasons. The university has many more students than we had five years ago, and we must hire additional professors to teach these students. We have also made a new commitment to research and technology, and will be renovating and upgrading our laboratory facilities to better meet our students needs. Lecturer: Now listen to two students as they discuss the announcement. After hearing the conversation, explain what two students responses for the announcement and mention their solution for the problem.

3. Validity of Speaking Test Items

A great variety of tasks can be used in production tests but, in addition to the requirement is any task used has high construct validity (be a good example of speaking or writing). Construct validity means that lecturers need to consider what is known about language knowledge and

ability, and the ability to use language i.e. not design a test arbitrarily. In speaking test 1, the item is face to face interview. In this test, the lecturers consider that the students have already got information about the classes they take in the semester. In speaking test 2, the lecturer is asking about students opinion in the case of first year student living in dormitory. The lecturers test this item because he/she knows exactly that the students will have something in their mind to speak up since the students have experienced as first year students. So, in speaking one and two tests, the test is valid because it is using construct validity. In the third item, we can see that the test is integrated communication test. As we know that the nature of speaking is to communicate. By this definition, it means that the lecturers teach and unable students to use the language. Integrative here means that we test two or more aspects of language components at the same time continuously. In this item, first, the lecturer asks the students to read the announcement, and then they have to listen to the conversation of two students. After that, the lecturer gives question and the students have to answer them orally. By seeing the process of testing, we can see that the item is integrated (reading, listening and speaking). This item is using construct validity because before the students are tested in their speaking ability, they have already been given the information through reading and listening.