INNOVATIVE SPEAKING ASSESSMENTS

Minsk State Linguistic UniversityKatie Subrasubr0054@umn.edu

SWBAT Theory & Practice Q: What is the purpose of requiring and

assessing speech acts in an English classroom?

A: Students will be able to…Action Objectives:oAddressoDevelopoEngageoExpandoImproveoFormulateoLead

oNavigate

oPrepareoProjectoPromoteoSelf-analyzeoSpeakoUtilizeoValue

Sample Action Objectives How would you assess these skills?SWBAT – Students Will Be Able To:

1.Speak comfortably and fluently in conversational situations,

2.Address large and small groups using formal speech,

3.Lead and actively participate in group conversations,

4.Utilize counter-argumentation techniques in debate or persuasive speaking style,

5.Develop etiquette strategies for speaking to a diverse population,

6.Promote themselves using interview skills,

7.Prepare English phrases for urgent situations,

8.Self-analyze and respond to body language and hesitation markers in speech,

9.Expand upon impromptu and small-talk topics,

10.Improve pronunciation skills, including intonation, stress and rhythm.

Contextualized Objectives

Informal Individual: Extemporaneous/Impromptu

Speeches, Introductions, Storytelling with pictures

Conversational: Small Talk Topics, Conversation Partners/Tandem Programs, Situational Role Plays

Formal Individual: Genre Speeches (Research?),

Speaking Journals Paired: Microteaching, Genre Speech (Good

Deeds), Paired Speeches (Movie Critique/Interview)

Group: VoiceThread (Group Journal/Message board), Debate, Emergency Situation Role Plays, Theater

Food for Thought

Our speech acts often depend upon the appropriate

Sociopragmatic signals of our culture which we develop

in our L1 from the time we are infants.

Our students' best chance for developing their speaking

fluency in their L2 depends on our ability to set the

scene: -Formal/Informal Practice -Holistic Grading/Rubrics -Individual/Paired/Group Work -Micro/Macro Skills

Forms of Assessment Feedback

Sliding scale points

Point-per-task Focused task

completion Ignores errors

that aren't related to main objective (vocabulary use, pronunciation, word order, intonation)

Continuum of points

Specific descriptors of goals See examples:

Mock Interview Good Deeds

Holistic/Task Completion Rubrics

Assessing Informal Speech Acts

Look at this list of informal speech acts. Decide:

1) What active objective is being accomplished?

2) How would you rate the student's performance?

Extemporaneous/Impromptu Speeches: Pop Topics – Students practice talking with a

partner about random topics assigned to them for 5 minutes at a time. Partners may elect them for large group presentations.

Small Talk Topics – Students are given a situation which they are likely to find themselves in and asked to assign roles with their partner and begin speaking about it.

Storytelling Task (see next slide)

Assessing Informal Speech Acts

Storytelling Task

Students are given a series of pictures (e.g. storybook, comic strip, or travel photos…)

The student must describe what they see after a few minutes of reflection.

Encourage students to use grammatical phrases, details, and time markers.

What active objective is being accomplished?

How would you rate the student's performance?

From ELSA Handbook 2003.

Food for Thought

"When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role playing, sidestep, shilly-shally and engage in all manner of vagueness and innuendo. We do this and expect others to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for the plain truth, for people to say what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal." Steven Pinker

Assessing Informal Speech ActsSociopragmatic Speech Acts in Role Plays: Apologies Complaints Compliments/Responses Refusals Requests ThanksPractice using specialized grammar, polite

phrasing, and indirect speech for these and other common face-saving situations (formal & informal speech).

Sociopragmatic Example: Apologies

Taken from Carla, The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition, UMN (Cohen & Olshtain, 1981):

Can you guess how Americans would use apologies for the following purposes? Create the scene.

An expression of apology (e.g. I'm so very sorry!) Acknowledgement of responsibility (e.g. It's my fault.) Explanation or account (e.g. The bus was late.) Offer of repair (e.g. How can I make it up to you?) Promise of non-recurrence (e.g. It won't happen again)

Why are these speech acts important? When would your students use them? Think about the level of your students. What additional preparation would they need?

Sociopragmatic Example: Refusals

Taken from Carla, The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition, UMN (Cohen & Olshtain, 1981):

Imagine that you have to make a refusal for the following situations. How could you do so while being polite? Would your language change if you were talking to your boss vs. friend?

Refusal of Request (e.g. additional work/helping a friend) Refusal of Invitations (e.g. birthday invitation) Refusal of Offers (e.g. offer to dry clean your coat after

spilling on it) Refusal of Suggestions (e.g. suggestion to change work

habits) Why are these speech acts important? When would

your students use them? Think about the level of your students. What additional preparation would they need?

Informal –> Formal Voicethread

http://voicethread.com/

Assessing Formal Speech Acts

Start with a clear statement of requirements Consider showing your rubric or grading

method ahead of time Practice peer assessment (Native Speaker &

Peer Ex.) Use variety:

Microteaching (great for grammar or research review)

Good Deeds Speech Mock Interviews Emergency Situation Role Plays

Bloom's Taxonomy Review

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom proposed a taxonomy of student learning objectives. The taxonomy is a range of skills attained by students. The assessment techniques used to measure student success along this range of objectives can be formative or summative in nature.

Formative= Decision Making/Creative Application

Summative= Information Retention

Assessing Micro/Macro Skills

Interview Skills Pop Topics Good Deeds

Speech …

Role plays Storytelling Social Speech

Acts …

Knowledge – Understand - Apply

Analyze – Evaluate - Create

How do we define a Speech Task?

Input or material used

Roles of participants

Settings/arrangements

Actions/what happens

Monitoring/leader Outcomes as the

goal Feedback/

Evaluation

Input Learner role Settings Activity Teacher role Goals

Candlin (1987) – from Fulcher (2003) Nunan (1989) – from Fulcher (2003)

Communicative Potential of Tasks (Wright, 1987)

An Alternate Framework (Fulcher, 2003)1. Task orientation• Open: outcomes dependent upon speakers• Guided: outcomes are guided by rubrics with

flexibility2. Interactional relationship• Non-interactional• Interactional: One-way, Two-way, or Multi-

way3. Goal orientation: None, Convergent, or

Divergent4. Interlocutor status and familiarity: No

interlocutor, Higher status, Lower status, Same status, or Degree of familiarity

5. Topic(s) 6. Situations

Comparing the Communicative Potential of Two tasks (Fulcher, 2003)

Define: 1.Task Orientation, 2.Interactional Relationships, 3.Goal Orientation, 4.Interlocutor Status and Familiarity, 5.Topics, 6.Situations

Task 1: Results

Task Orientation: Closed/Guided. The test taker merely has to read the sentences aloud, in an order indicated by a computer-generated voice. The outcome of the task is entirely dictated by the rubric and the input, and no deviation is allowed.

Interactional Relationship: non-interactional. There is no communication between speakers.

Task 1: Results (cont'd)

Goal Orientation: none. In this task type there is no goal orientation at all because there is no 'communication' taking place. It is feasible to have a computer-administered […] but for the most part, computer-administered speaking tests cannot simulate divergent goal orientations.

Interlocutor Status and Familiarity: No interlocutor.

Topics: Home, travel, food. Situations: variable.

Task 2: from CUEFL (1988)

Define: 1.Task Orientation, 2.Interactional Relationships, 3.Goal Orientation, 4.Interlocutor Status and Familiarity, 5.Topics, 6.Situations

Task 2: Results

Task Orientation: open. While the input suggests topics it is made clear that the learner does not have to use any items in the list, and may talk about anything else that may have affected their life in the past year.

Interactional Relationship: one-way. The learner is being asked to communicate opinions and view to the teacher; while the teacher may ask clarification questions, or encourage the learner through the use of appropriate back-channelling, it is clearly the case that the learner is intended to spend most of the time talking to the teacher. Communication is not co-constructed.

Task 2: Results cont'd

Goal Orientation: convergent. Interlocutor Status and Familiarity: The

interlocutor is a teacher and therefore the status of the interlocutor is high. The teacher is one who has not taught the learner, and so familiarity is low.

Topics: Familiar topics about which the learner can express thanks, requirements, opinions, comment, attitude, confirmation, apology, wants or needs, information; narrate a sequence of events; elicit information, directions, or service.

Situations: variable.

Resources

Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition. (2013). Description of Speech Acts. UMN. Retrieved from: http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/refusals/american.html

ELSA Handbook. (2003). LCCIEB Customer Service. p. 56.

Fulcher, G. (2003). "Tasks for second language speaking tests" in Testing second language speaking (pp. 50-87). Harlow, England: Longman/Pearson Education.

Contact me with questions or to obtain a copy of this Powerpoint: subr0054@umn.edu

website: elfbelarus.wordpress.com