Section 6, Unit 2: Assessing Speaking and Pronunciation

I. EXAMPLE RUBRICS TO ASSESS SPEAKING

1. Rubric to Assess Conversations or Role-Plays

4 Accuracy in Grammar Accuracy in Vocabulary
Uses grammar effectively with few errors Uses a wide range of vocabulary accurately

3
Uses grammar effectively but with some errors Occasionally unable to find the correct word but communicates effectively Responds and interacts confidently with occasional stopping

2
Frequent errors lead to communication breakdown Frequently unable to express ideas through lack of vocabulary

1
Unable to convey intended meaning Unable to find vocabulary to express ideas

Score

Fluency

Responds and interacts confidently without stopping unnaturally Uses language appropriate to setting, purpose, audience

Often stops or is unable to respond, which interrupts communication flow

Does not respond to most questions

Appropriacy

Uses language appropriate to setting, purpose, and audience most of the time Occasionally has to repeat him/herself to be understood

Frequently uses language inappropriate to setting, purpose, or audience Makes errors in pronunciation that sometimes lead to misunderstanding

Unable to use language appropriate to setting, purpose, or audience Difficult to understand

Comprehensibility Is easy to
understand at all times

Total Score

/20

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2. Rubric for Self-Assessment or Peer-Assessment

Grammar
I / My partner can say hello and goodbye. I / My partner can introduce myself / himself or herself. I / My partner can introduce a friend. I / My partner can ask and answer questions about times and dates. 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Vocabulary Pronunciation
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Fluency
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

1- cant do this yet 2- needs a lot more practice 3- makes some mistakes 4- makes few errors 5- can do this without any mistakes at all

II. USEFUL ACTIVITIES TO ASSESS PRONUNCIATION

Assessment Activity
Pair dictation: To practice producing contrasting phonemes. Card game: To practice vowels and diphthongs. Find your group: To practice syllable stress in words. Contradiction game: To practice contrastive sentence stress.

Procedure
Students have a list of minimal pairs, for example, sink / think, sum / thumb, mouth / mouse. They dictate one word from each pair to a partner. The partner writes the word they hear.

Give each pair or group a set of cards with words that have similar vowel sounds, for example, weak / seen, turn / work, phone / boat. There is one word on each card. Students match the cards for the words with a similar vowel sound. Given each student a piece of paper with a word of two or more syllables on it. Students find all the students who have a word with the same stress pattern. ..... ... ... ...... .... Examples: exciting interesting difficult important necessary Each student is given a sentence that is obviously false. Students walk around the room saying their sentence to every student they meet. The other person has to contradict them using the correct sentence stress. For example: A: Paris is in Italy. B: No, it isnt. Paris is in France. Students work in groups. Each group has a set of emotion cards. Each card has a different emotion written on it (for example: angry, surprised, disappointed, and pleased). They also have a list of sentences. Each student in turn picks up a card and (without showing the card to the others) says a sentence from the list using that emotion. The other students have to guess the emotion. Whoever guesses correctly scores a point.

Intonation game: How do I feel? To practice using intonation patterns to express different feelings.

Copyright National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage Learning