SPEAKING PAPER: CATERPILLAR TURNING INTO BUTTERFLY

Elena Onoprienko

Yulia Polshina

Far Eastern Federal University

Test as measuring tool… a language test is a procedure for gathering evidence of general or specific language abilities from performance on tasks designed to provide a basis for predictions about an individual’s use of those abilities in real world contexts.

(McNamara 2000)

Characteristics of a test

Practicality

Validity

Reliability

Current practices

100 years of tradition in Russian/Soviet assessment

practices read and translate read and retell translate sentences from Russian into English topics, topics, topics …

Emphasis on reproduction Highly subjective assessment

Why assess speaking? Linking language production to real-world

contexts Valuing communication over knowledge about

the language Achieving communicative goals effectively Acquiring competence in educational contexts Giving learners a sense of achievement Motivating further learning Providing useful feedback on learning

Glenn Fulcher, 2012

Survey: where respondents are from

Universities Moscow State University Higher School of Economics, National

Research University Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University Southern Federal University Far Eastern Federal University Universities from Chelyabinsk, Surgut,

Ulyanovsk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, Saransk, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Kharkiv

Skills assessed:

Difficult to test:

Speaking tasks

Nature of Speaking

Spoken language Speaking as interactionSpeaking as a social activitySpeaking as a situation-based

activity

What are we assessing?

Accuracy

Fluency

Communication strategies

Discourse and interactional competence

Task completion

Pragmatic and sociolinguistic competence

Speaking Paper 1

15 years ago

3rd year EFL

majors

Focus on

vocabulary

Why?

Internet

Copy-paste

PowerPoint

Movies

No lists

Old Task

Talk about your favorite actor.

Criteria:

topic vocabulary

accuracy

fluency

Later version

Presentation of an actor/actress

Imagine that you are your favorite actor/actress agent. You have to promote him/her to get a role in a movie. Focus on background, education, career (ups and downs; emphasize personal qualities that helped to achieve goals), previous roles (what movies he/she played in, what challenges had to be faced, what he/she had to be able do to play this or that role – new skills, appearance, etc., achievements (awards, status). Be specific. Speak about 3-5 min.

Sample Speaking Paper 1Actors Contest:

• Talk about one actor/actress, focusing on the features in the table. Your goal is to win the most points in each category.

• Listen to other students’ reports and fill in the table.• At the end of the class count the points, discuss them and decide who’s won.

Sample Speaking Paper 2If a college student gets caught cheating in the US, or Canada,

or Australia, he/she might be expelled from college. In your opinion, is there a problem of cheating in Russian universities? Comment on different attitudes and express your point of view.

CriteriaContentDurationInteractionFluencyGrammar and Vocabulary

Sample Speaking Paper 2

Content  5 4 3 2

Содержание Содержание полностью соответствует заданию; высказывание развернуто, связно и аргументировано; студент иллюстрирует основные аргументы примерами.

Содержание в основном соответствует заданию; высказывание развернуто, аргументировано, но аргументы носят общий характер; студент недостаточно ясно формулирует собственное отношение и/или не подкрепляет его примерами.

В общем, содержание соответствует заданию, но характеризуется слабой аргументацией, общими словами, отсутствием связности; не всегда понятно, как части высказывания связаны между собой; высказывание, недостаточно развернуто.

Студент не приступил к выполнению задания, либо задание не соответствует заявленной теме, либо длительность высказывания меньше 1,5 минут, либо высказывание содержит значительные по объему элементы заученного текста.