Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-l4dxg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T05:27:48.995Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Assessing second language speaking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2015

Glenn Fulcher
Glenn Fulcher*
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Leicester, UKgf39@le.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

While the viva voce (oral) examination has always been used in content-based educational assessment (Latham 1877: 132), the assessment of second language (L2) speaking in performance tests is relatively recent. The impetus for the growth in testing speaking during the 19th and 20th centuries is twofold. Firstly, in educational settings the development of rating scales was driven by the need to improve achievement in public schools, and to communicate that improvement to the outside world. Chadwick (1864, see timeline) implies that the rating scales first devised in the 1830s served two purposes: providing information to the classroom teacher on learner progress for formative use, and generating data for school accountability. From the earliest days, such data was used for parents to select schools for their children in order to ‘maximize the benefit of their investment’ (Chadwick 1858). Secondly, in military settings it was imperative to be able to predict which soldiers were able to undertake tasks in the field without risk to themselves or other personnel (Kaulfers 1944, see timeline). Many of the key developments in speaking test design and rating scales are linked to military needs.

Type
Research Timeline
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , pp. 198 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bachman, L. F. (2001). Speaking as a realization of communicative competence. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Association of Applied Linguistics. St. Louis, Missouri, February.Google Scholar
Biber, D. (2006). University language. A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadwick, E. (1858). On the economical, social, educational, and political influences of competitive examinations, as tests of qualifications for admission to the junior appointments in the public service. Journal of the Statistical Society of London 21.1, 18–51.Google Scholar
Chun, C. W. (2006). Commentary: An analysis of a language test for employment: The authenticity of the PhonePass test. Language Assessment Quarterly 3.3, 295–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downey, R., Farhady, H., Present-Thomas, R., Suzuki, M. & Van Moere, A. (2008). Evaluation of the usefulness of the Versant for English test: A response. Language Assessment Quarterly 5.2, 160–167.Google Scholar
Fulcher, G. (2003). Testing second language speaking. Harlow: Longman/Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. (2001). The art of non-conversation: A re-examination of the validity of the oral proficiency interview. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kenyon, D. (1992). Introductory remarks at symposium on development and use of rating scales in language testing. Paper delivered at the 14th Language Testing Research Colloquium, Vancouver, March.Google Scholar
Latham, H. (1877). On the action of examinations considered as a means of selection. Cambridge: Dighton, Bell and Company.Google Scholar
Lazaraton, A. (2002). A qualitative approach to the validation of oral language tests. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Luoma, S. (2004). Assessing second language speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McNamara, T. F. (1995). Modelling performance: Opening Pandora's Box. Applied Linguistics 16.2, 159–179.Google Scholar
Milanovic, M. & Saville, N. (1996). Introduction. In Milanovic, M. (ed.), Performance testing, cognition and assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–17.Google Scholar
Skehan, P. (2001). Tasks and language performance assessment. In Bygate, M., Skehan, P. & Swain, M. (eds.), Researching pedagogic tasks: Second language learning, teaching and testing. London: Longman, 167–185.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. (2011). Examining speaking. Research and practice in assessing second language speaking. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.Google Scholar
Weir, C. & Milanovic, M. (2003) (eds.). Continuity and innovation: Revising the Cambridge Proficiency in English Examination 1913 –2002. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weir, C. J., Vidaković, I. & Galaczi, E. D. (2013) (eds.). Measured constructs: A history of Cambridge English language examinations 1913 –2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vidaković, I. & Galaczi, E. D. (2013). The measurement of speaking ability 1913–2012. In Weir, C. J., Vidaković, I., & Galaczi, E. D. (eds.), Measured constructs: A history of Cambridge English language examinations 1913 – 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 257–346.Google Scholar