Assessing Spoken Language in EFL: Beliefs and Practices

Abstract

The assessment of spoken language has gone from the testing of grammar and pronunciation to a more comprehensive assessment of oral language. Thus, oral assessment should reflect not only instructional objectives and practices but also the real-life situations in which the student will have to perform. With this in mind, this research study aimed at investigating teachers´ understanding of oral assessment in order to establish similar oral evaluation criteria for teachers, students, and the institution. To obtain information for answering the research questions set forth in this study, 30 teachers were interviewed on their beliefs and practices on oral assessment. The analysis of the data followed a grounded approach. The results of the project revealed that most teachers have a weak knowledge of assessment; that assessment is done for summative purposes rather than formative; that assessment is done unsystematically and without much planning; and that teachers use multiple activities to assess different aspects of oral language with some attention to students´ level of language proficiency. The implications of these results indicate the need for educational programs in the area of assessment and the creation of an oral assessment system