Communicative

Language Testing
 Basic Types of Speaking
• Imitative, it is simply the ability to parrot back a word or phrase or a
sentence.
• Intensive, it is the production of short stretches of oral language.
Examples include directed response tasks, reading aloud, sentence
and dialogue completion, limited picture-cued tasks.
• Responsive, the tasks include interaction and test comprehension but
at the limited level of short conversations, standard greetings, small
talk, requests, and comments
• Interactive, the length and complexity of the interaction are more in
interactive tasks than in responsive ones. The task sometimes
includes multiple exchanges and/or multiple participants
• Extensive, (monologue) the tasks include speeches, oral
presentations and story-telling. Oral interaction from listeners is
either highly limited or ruled out altogether.
 Assesment Tasks: Imitative
speaking
 word repetition task
Test-takers hear : 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 vocation?
Do you like coffee?

Test-takers repeat the stimulus

 scoring scale for repetition tasks
2 Acceptable pronunciation
1 Comprehensible, partially correct
pronunciation
0 silence, seriously incorrect pronunciation
 Phonepass test
 phonepass test specification
it elicts computer-assited oral production over a telephone.
Test-takers read aloud, repeat sentence, say words, and
answer question
• Part A: test-takers read aloud selected sentence, examples
1. traffic is a huge problem in southern california
• Part B: test-takers repeat sentences dictated over the phone,
example:
1. leave town on the next train
• Part C: test-takers answer question with a single word or a
short phrase, example:
1. Would you get water from a bottle or a newspaper?
• Part D: test-takers hear three word groups in
random order and link them in a correctly ordered
sentence, example:
1. was reading/my mother/ a magazine.
• Part E: test-takers have 3o seconds to talk about
their opinion about some topic that is dictated
over the phone. Topics center on family,
preferences, and choices
• Score are calculated by a computerized scoring
template and reported back to the test-taker within
minutes
 Designing Assessment Tasks:
Intensive Speaking
 directed response tasks
• Directed response
test-takers hear :
- tell me he went home.
- tell me that you like rook music.
- tell me that you aren’t interested in tennis
- tell him to come to my office at noon
- remind him what time it is
 read aloud tasks
• Test spoken english scoring scale (read-aloud tasks)
pronunciation ;
points :
0,0-0,4 frequent phonemic errors and foreign and intonation patterns that
because the speaker to be unintelligible.
0.5-1,4 frequent phonemic errors and foreign stress and intonation patterns
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 inteligiblle.
2,5-3,0 occasional non-native pronunciation errors, but the speaker is always
intelligible.

Fluency;
Points:
0.0-0,4 slow, hesitant, and unintelligibile
0,5-1,4 non native pauses flow that interferes with intelligibility
1,5-2,4 non native pauses but the flow is inteligible
2,3-3,0 smooth and effortless
Sentence/dialogue completion tasks and oral questionnaires

• Test-takers read (and then heart)

• Directed response tasks
 Picture-cued tasks
• Picture-cued elicitation of minimal pairs
• Picture-cued elicitation of comparatives (brown & sahni,
1994,pp.135
• Picture-cued elicitation of future tense (brown & sahni,1994,
p. 145
• Picture-cued elicitation of nouns, negative response, numbers,
and location (brown & sahni, p. 116.
• Picture cued elicitation of responses and description (brown &
sahni, 1994, p. 162)
• Map-cued elicitation of giving direction (brown & sahni, 1994,
p 169)
 Translation
• 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 very 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
 Designing Assessment Tasks:
Responsive Speaking
 Question and answer
• Questions eliciting open-ended responses

• Elicitation of question from the test-taker

 Giving instruction & directions

• Eliciting instruction or directions

- The task should require the test-taker to produce at least 5 or 6

sentence
- Use familiar topics and test linguistics competence
 paraphrasing
• Paraphrasing a story

• Paraphrasing a phone message

 Test of Spoken English (TSE)
• TSE is a 20-minutes audiotaped test of oral
language ability within an academic
professional environment
• TSE scores are used by many North American
institutions of higher education
• The tasks are designed to elicit oral production
in various discourse categories
• Example of TSE
 Designing Assessment Tasks:
Interactive Speaking

• Oral interview: a test administrator and a test taker sit down in

a direct face-to face exchange and proceed through a protocol
of questions and directives.
• It varies in length from 5 to 45 minutes, depending on
purpose and context. Placement interview may need only 5
minutes while oral proficiency interview (OPI) may require an
hour
 A Framework for oral proficiency
testing
• Four stages: warm-up, level check, probe, and wind-down.
• Warm-p: the interview directs natural introductions, helps the test-
taker become comfortable with the situation, apprises the format,
and reduces anxieties.
• Level check: through preplanned qs, the test takers respond using
expected forms and functions. Linguistic target criteria are scored
• Probe: in this phase, test-takers go to the heights of their ability and
extend beyond the limits of the interviewer’s expectation
• Through probe questions, the interviewer discovers the test-taker’s
proficiency. At the lower levels of proficiency, probe items may
demand a higher range of vocabulary and grammar than predicted..
• Wind-down: the interviewer encourages the test taker to relax with
some easy questions, set the t-t’s mind at ease.
• Content
• Oral interview content specifications
• Sample questions for the four stages of an oral interview
 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 you’re a tourist asking me for
directions”, “you are buying a necklace from me in a flea
market, and want a lower price”.
 Discussions & conversations
• As informal techniques to assess, D & C offer a level of
authenticity spontaneity that other assessment techniques my
not provide
 assessment games
• Oral proficiency interview (OPI)
 Designing Assessments: Extensive
Speaking
• Extensive speaking tasks are frequently variations on monologues, usually
with minimal verbal interaction.
1. Oral presentations
2. Picture cued story-telling task (brown, 1999,
p.29)
 Retelling a Story, News event
• Test-takers hear/read a story or news event
that they are asked to retell.
• It differs from the paraphrasing task discussed
above in that it is a longer stretch of discourse
and a different genre.
 Translation (of Extended Prose)
• Longer texts are presented for the test-taker to
read in the native language and then translate
into English.
• Text vary in forms: dialogue, directions, play,
movie, etc
• Advantages: the control of the content,
vocabulary, the grammatical and discourse
features.
• Disadvantages: a highly specialized skill is needed