Introduction

Speaking is not just about having lexical competency, saying the words correctly and putting them in the right order, and most importantly, it doesn’t just ‘come naturally’ (Fox, 2019). Speaking is considered as one of the most challenging skills. Except being challenging, it could even be labeled as ‘scary’. Why is that so? Before, during and even after speaking, learners need to process a lot of steps. 

Firstly, during an interactive conversation, they need to be on the alert at all times not to miss any important message. They need to prepare for what they are going to say. Hence, even if it takes seconds, there is a preparation time. During listening, the brain searches the appropriate use of grammar, vocabulary, intonation and even pronunciation, meanwhile thinking about fluency. Harris (1977), stated that due to all the skills required while speaking, it is, indeed, a complicated skill. Therefore, learners might see speaking as something demanding and challenging. As for assessment, assessors may face some challenges, too, such as number of learners, time, reliability, lack of available tests, administrative issues. Therefore, Heaton (1995), proved that speaking is an extremely difficult skill to test, as it is a skill far too complex to permit any reliable analysis. Yet, do we always have to test our learners? What if, we do not focus on grading them but on how they can learn and develop better, decreasing all the possible negative factors such as exam anxiety, lack of motivation, fear of mistakes? Do we always need criteria and rubrics for assessment? 

So as to answer these questions appropriately, the difference between formative and summative assessment must be known. Harlen&Deakin Crick (2002), defined formative assessment as assessment for learning and summative assessment as assessment of learning. It means whereas formative assessment focuses on monitoring learners and helping them learn better with continuous feedback, summative assessment focuses on how much learners have learned with a score or result. So, it is possible to create a positive atmosphere and evaluate our learners formatively. Regardless of the assessment type, why don’t we just promote speaking with different tasks since variety creates a better learning environment and learners might have different learning styles and strategies? In order to address to different intelligences, conducting different tasks in class is crucial.

Below are listed various tasks to boost speaking for all levels as the sample questions could be adjusted according to their proficiency levels:

1. Interviews

Here, teachers ask learners general questions, which could be basically about anything. It is important to reply with personalized experiences. Learners are able to answer these questions without thinking on them a lot since these questions also depend on personal experience and opinions.

2. Oral presentations

Teachers give learners 2 minutes to get prepared before they start speaking. It is important to give the main and supporting details in an organized way with examples and maybe personal experiences. In this way, learners’ speaking skills along with presentation skills could be evaluated, too. These kinds of questions provide more organized speech with samples and details.

3. Integrated tasks

Learners are expected to read or/and listen about the topic they are to discuss. These tasks are useful since they integrate different skills at the same time. Learners are not just supposed to speak about a question, but are engaged in reading and/or listening to text to compare, contrast, analyze and summarize the details given.

4. Pair/ Group discussion tasks

These tasks can be conducted either in pairs or groups, depending on the task itself, topic and profile of learners. Whereas learners have a chance to have interactive conversations, not letting the same learner hold the floor is very important. These tasks motivate learners as they need to speak with their peers, not teachers. After the task is done, peer feedback could be beneficial, too. There is no doubt that sometimes peer effect is a strong learning tool boosting cooperative and collaborative learning.

5. Describing something

Description tasks could be various since learners may be asked to describe anything like a room, book, friend etc. It is important to support descriptive sentences with different adjectives and adverbs. If teachers want to add some fun in the task, they can ask learners to draw physical descriptions meanwhile the other one is telling the details. Moreover, learners could enhance their cross-cultural understanding, too, as they might have peers from different cities, countries and cultures.

6. Telling a story

While speaking, learners might be less anxious when asked about their personal anecdotes. With a little preparation time, they can talk about their experience. They can also practice the use of proper linkers and, especially, past simple tense forms while telling a story. Also, with follow-up questions, mimes and gestures of teachers, learners can be more motivated to give more details.

7. Comparing things

For this task, learners are expected to discuss the similarities or/and differences between two things. They should make sure that their speech has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. In the end, they could be asked which one of the items discussed is their choice and why. In this way, they have the chance to practice the skills of comparing and contrasting.

There are, of course, more activities that can be used for assessing speaking, in particular, for formative assessment, meanwhile monitoring, learning, teaching and most importantly, having fun. Provided that you want to achieve more than one objective at the same time, here are a few fun and educational task suggestions to boost speaking, examples of which create a positive environment to promote comprehensible input and meaningful learning:

8. Please Don’t Stop the Music!

Learners make a circle and each learner has a question card with a number upside down. The teacher starts playing music, meanwhile learners are passing their card to the next person, still upside down. When the teacher stops playing music, everyone freezes! S/he tells a random number, and the learner with the same number is to answer the question on the card. The game goes on until everyone speaks.

9. Roll the Dice!

The teacher has a board game with tasks. The class is divided into two teams. Learners from each team roll the dice, forward the team magnet and do the task on that number. If it is a question, they must speak for a minute. The instructions could be as follows: “Compliment a friend” “Go back to the starting point.” Doing the task, the team can stay where they forward.

10. Where is the Other Half?

Learners are divided into two; every second learner puts his/her head down on the desk, eyes closed. While the others are up, the teacher starts showing a silent movie on the board, and pauses in the middle. It is now time for learners to change roles. In the end, they all tell each other what happens in their part of the movie using the plot, characters and events.

11. Let me Stay Aboard!

The teacher prepares some celebrity cards. Learners are divided into groups of 5-6. Each learner has a card and acts like the person on it. The purpose is to stay on a sinking boat and everyone must discuss why she/he needs to stay aboard since they need to sacrifice some people in the end. Finally, the groups vote about whom to sacrifice.

Conclusion

When all the aspects are taken into consideration, it can be seen that assessing speaking skill of learners does not necessarily mean testing them one by one in front of teachers. For this reason, it is an undeniable fact that different alternative tasks in the classroom can also boost learners’ speaking skill, giving them space without worrying about scores or having exam anxiety. Hence, tasks promoting production in the target language is a great step in the learning process. Different tools and tasks in assessment of speaking can be very essential.

References

Fox, E. (2019, September). Advancing Learning: The challenges of speaking. Retrieved from https://www.macmillanenglish.com/tr/blog-resources/articles/article/advancing-learning-the-challenges-of-speaking

Harlen W, Deakin Crick R (2002). A systematic review of the impact of summative assessment and tests on students' motivation for learning (EPPI-Centre Review, version 1.1*). In: Research Evidence in Education Library. Issue 1. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education.

Harris, D. (1977). Testing English as a second language. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Heaton, J. B. (1990). Writing English language tests. New York: Longman.

R. Spiby,R., Westbrook, C., Rossi, O., Burton, D., Valkova, R. & Dixon, J. (2020). Language Assessment in the Classroom by British Council (Online Course). Futurelearn. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/language-assessment