ASL – Speaking Test Administration for Students And Teachers

Speaking skill has acquired a very important place in the communication skills. Like listening skills – a number of sub-skills of speaking need to be consciously developed amongst students. Some of the sub-skills are given below which can be assessed.

1. Speaking intelligibly using appropriate word stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns.
2. Narrating incidents and events, real or imaginary in a logical sequence.
3. presenting oral reports or summaries; making announcements clearly and confidently.
4. Expressing and arguing a point of view clearly and effectively.
5. taking active part in group discussions, showing ability to express agreement or disagreement, summarising ideas, eliciting the views of others, and presenting own ideas.
6. Expressing and responding to personal feelings, opinions and attitudes.
7. Participating in spontaneous spoken discourse in familiar social situations.

General Instructions

1 The total administration time for the speaking test is approximately 10-12 minutes
2 The speaking test will be conducted for two students at a time.
3 There will be a single teacher to function as the Interlocutor and Assessor.
4 The Interlocutor/ Assessor should be a qualified English Teacher

The Speaking Test: Role of Assessor

1. The (Assessor) should ensure that the room is quiet and has good acoustics.
2. The tone, manner and body language of the Interlocutor should be relaxed, encouraging and pleasant. Care should be taken to make the candidates feel at ease.
3. Students must not be discouraged from making a fresh start in case they are unable to do so at the first attempt.
4. The Assessor needs to be flexible, sympathetic and reassuring in her/his demeanour.
5. The Assessor should also be a proficient user of the language in order to conduct the speaking test successfully. For e.g .the interlocutor should be skilled in Elicitation techniques. For e.g. Yes/No questions should generally be avoided.
6. Alternatively questions such as… Explain how/Why…Tell me what you think of….
7. Ideally, the Assessor should award marks after the candidates have left the Examination Room. If necessary, notes can be made discreetly to be later in the scoring so that it does not make the candidates unduly tense and self-conscious.

The Speaking test is divided into three sections as given below:
 
Assessment of Speaking Skill
Class – XI/XII
10 Marks

I. General Introduction (1 minute)

(The Interlocutor makes the students feel comfortable)

Interlocutor: Good morning, I am ———————-.
Student A: My name is —————-/ I am ——————-
Interlocutor: And yours? (looking at student B)
Student B: ———————————
Interlocutor: What do you do in your leisure time (To student B)
Student B: ———————————–
Interlocutor: What other hobby would you like to develop? (To student A)
Student A: ———————————–
Interlocutor: what would you like to develop? (To student B)
Student B: ——————
Interlocutor: who is your favourite actor? (To student A)
Student A: ———–
Interlocutor: And yours? (To student B)
Student B: —————

II. Mini Presentation

In this section the Interlocutor gives each candidate the choice to pick up a Role Card or a Cue Card with a topic written on it.

The candidates are given 1 minute to prepare. The assessor should be ready with sheets of paper and pencil. Candidates may organize their thoughts and ideas.

Prior to the day of the speaking test, as an assistance to students to prepare for the presentations, a teacher can give a choice of 20 to 30 topics in class to students so that they can prepare the topics and organise their ideas on each topic .Similar topics can be given in the formal testing .

Please note that candidates are not allowed to write full length answers. They may jot down points only in the sheets given by the Interlocutor. Therefore, pencil and paper should be provided on the table. Students are not allowed to carry pen, paper or mobile in the examination room. After one minute, each student will be given 2 minutes each to present his/her ideas.

In case, a student is unable to speak during /for the allotted time, the (Assessor) may ask some rounding off questions.

Mini Presentation
 
(1 min Preparation + 2 each min for both the students= 5 min)

1. Your school is planning to organize an adventure camp during summer vacations. The Secretary of the School Adventure Club has offered the following three choices. As a member of the club which place would you prefer? Give reasons for your choice. (Interlocutor gives different input card to both students. Four samples are given)

a.    Seven day swimming camp at lake Bhimtal
b.    Four day trekking camp at Pehalgam, Srinagar
c.    Five day river rafting camp at Rishikesh

2. Talk about a book you have read recently

a.    Why did you decided to read that book?
b.    How long did it take to finish the book?
c.    What genre of book it was?

3. Talk about your favourite news channel.

a.    How often you use this news source
b.    Why do you use this channel
c.    What other sources you use

4. E-learning.

a.    Autonomous learning
2.    Adds variety
3.    Gives choices
4.    Clarifies concepts

III. Pair Interaction

The third section of the test is for 3 minutes. Both candidates are given a verbal or visual stimulus and asked to respond to it. Both the candidates are given a total of 3 minutes to interact. Both of them will talk together.

The closing is for 1 minute duration only. In case a student has not been able to speak or has been unable to speak owing to nervousness, the dominance of the second candidate or any other factor, then, the (interlocutor) may use the 1 minute to give a fresh opportunity to that student.

 

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