UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE LA SANTISIMA CONCEPCION

FACULTAD EDUCACION
AREA DE LENGUAS

Assignment 3: Assessing Speaking

Name: Natalia Gonzlez

Date: 11/06/2015

Task
Billy Elliot

Britains coal mining strike

Part 1
Look at these photographs and reflect about them, each of you will be given 2
different pictures (See Appendix 1). Choose one and describe it considering the
contents seen in class about the book Billy Elliot and the coal mining strike in
England. Use the following questions as guidelines for your reflection. You will
have 30 seconds to read the questions.

What can you see in the picture? (Describe it using your own words)
What do you feel when you concentrate on these images?
How do these photos relate to the novel Billy Elliot?

Part 2
Now, look at these 3 images (See Appendix 2) and get to an agreement on which
of the pictures represents in a better way the historical events of the strike, and
why.

Task specifications

The tests
purpose

The aim of this test is to assess the learners speaking

abilities by the interpretation of visual input and association
to background information.

Description of
the examinees

Third-grade high-school students from a private school.

Test level

Intermediate

Number of
sections/ papers

The test will consist of two parts: 1) Individual description of

a picture. 2) Discussion and agreement.

Time for each

section/paper

Part one: 3 minutes per student

Part two: 5 minutes in total

Weighting for
each
section/paper

One rubric will be used to assess the overall performance in

the two parts of the test. The criterion Interaction will only be
considered in the second part. The rubric has 5 criteria, and
the scores for each of them go from 1 to 4 points.

Target language
situation

Advanced Level English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

Text-types

Report and explanation

Text length

11 minutes

Language skills
to be tested

Speaking

Language
elements to be
tested

Fluency, grammar and vocabulary, comprehension, content

Test tasks

Part 1: The teacher shows 2 pictures to each student and

some questions to use as guidelines. First, one student has
to choose one picture to describe, 30 seconds will be given
to plan their answers. Then, the other student follows the
same procedure.
Part 2: The teacher shows 3 pictures and the two students
need to make connections between the pictures, the book
Billy Elliot and its background information and get to an

agreement on which of the 3 pictures best represents those

elements.
Test methods

The test will be conducted in pairs.

There will be one examiner, who will serve as an interviewer
and rater.
The test was designed for a maximum of 15 minutes.
The examiner will give the instructions for each section and
the students will proceed to complete each part of the test.

Task Orientation

The test has an opened orientation because the examinees

are free to choose which pictures to describe, they are not
given a structure to follow. Some questions will be provided
as a guide for the students in case they do not know how to
start their analysis, these are not meant to be answered
literally.

Interactional
relationship

Part 1: One-way interaction. Each student will give their

answer to the examiner, but there is no communication or
interruptions made by the teacher during the test.
Part 2: Two-ways interaction. Interaction between the two
examinees is key in this part of the test, as they need to
discuss their different point of views to get to a decision
together. No interventions from the examiner are meant to
occur.

Goal Orientation

Communicative interaction. The main element of the test is

that the students communicate their thoughts and ideas
about the pictures to, first, the examiner, and then to their
partner. Even though the examiner will not make
interventions during the test, the students need to
communicate to the teacher and between each other.

Status and
Familiarity
Topics

Interlocutor status is low and familiarity is high; since the

students chose to work together and the examiner will be
their teacher.
Literature and history.

Rubric
Student Name:
CATEGORY
Speaks Clearly

Grammar and
vocabulary

Interaction

Comprehension

Content

________________________________________
4
Speaks clearly,
fluently and
distinctly all (10095%) the time,
and
mispronounces no
words.
Uses grammar
and vocabulary
appropriately.
Only minor errors

3
Speaks clearly,
fluently and
distinctly all (10095%) the time, but
mispronounces
one word.

2
Speaks clearly,
and distinctly most
( 94-85%) of the
time.
Mispronounces a
few words.

1
Often mumbles or
can not be
understood OR
mispronounces
too many words.

Uses grammar
Frequent errors in
and vocabulary
grammar and
appropriately. Has limited vocabulary.
some errors

Errors interfere
with conveying
meaning and very
limited vocabulary.

Almost always
listens to, shares,
and interacts with
his/her partner.
Promotes
interaction with
his/her partner.

Usually listens to,

shares and
interacts with
his/her partner .
Does not interrupt
interaction.

Often listens to,

shares and
interacts with
his/her partner.
but sometimes
interrupts
interaction.

Shows a full
understanding of
the topic.

Shows a good
understanding of
the topic.

Shows a good
understanding of
parts of the topic.

Rarely listens to,

shares and
interacts with
his/her partner.
Interrupts
interaction,
making it hard to
get to an
agreement.
Student is able to Student is able to Student is able to Student is unable
accurately answer accurately answer accurately answer to accurately
almost all
most questions
a few questions
answer questions
questions about
about the topic.
about the topic.
about the topic.
the topic.

Total
_______/ 20

Does not seem to

understand the
topic very well.

Piloting
I gave this test to a 3rd year student from Saint Johns school, in San Pedro de la
Paz. It was only possible to pilot the first part of the test, because there was
nobody else available at that time. Regarding the first part, Nicols did not have
any problems understanding the instructions of the test and he performed at an
appropriate level, so I decided not to make any changes to the rubric or to the test.
Later I piloted the second part of the test but I served as Nicols partner, so we did
not record it. Again, there were no problems with the instructions and the student
felt comfortable speaking and he actively engaged in the discussion because he
knew the contents and had read the book at school; apart from having a good level
of English.

Appendix 1

Student A (Nicols)

Student B

Appendix 2