2. TEACHERS’ CHALLENGES IN
ASSESS ORAL LANGUAGE..
 Making time
 Selecting assessment activities
 Determining evaluating criteria

3. NATURE OF ORAL LANGUAGE
• Information is packed less densely in oral language than in written
language, with much more use of phrases and simple sentences.
• Oral language varies depending of the age, gender, and dialect of
speaker.
• Listening is not a passive or receptive skill, as is commonly assumed.
Research suggest listening id an interactive, dynamic, interpretive
process in which the listener engages in the active construction of
meaning
• The basic unit of meaning in oral communication is the proposition or
idea.

4. TAKE INTO ACOUNT…
Teachers who use more oral interaction activities in the
classroom will have more opportunities to assess oral language.
Listening and speaking are interdependent oral language process
and need to be taught and assessed in an integral manner
(Murphy 1991)

5. SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR OLA INDIFFERENT LEVELS:
BEGINIG AND INTERMEDIATE: will include task using predictable, familiar
language and visual cues, such a listening for the gist, matching descriptions to
pictures, making a physical response, and inferring the meaning or implications
in an oral text.
INTERMEDIATE OR ADVANCED: Formal oral reports and public speaking
performance.
ADVANCED BEGINERS: Can make oral presentations with plenty of support or
scaffolding (e.g. if they read what they themselves have written, describe a chart
they have prepared, describe steps in conducting a science experiment, or tell
how to solve a problem.
MORE ADVANCED LEARNERS: task might include summarizing, note-taking, and
use of fewer visual cues.

6. ORAL LANGUAGE IN SCHOOL
OLA of English language learners in school aims to capture a students’
ability to communicate for both basic communicative and academic
purposes .
Daily conversational skills are typically Context embedded: occur in a
meaningful social context with many paralinguistic cues and
cognitively-undemanding call for relatively familiar languages and
tasks.
academic language tends to become increasingly context-reduced:
little information is provided besides that obtained for teacher lectures
or textbooks and cognitively-demanding: New information and new
language are presented.

7. LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS
ELLs use language functions to express meaning. LF refer to
how individuals use language to accomplish specific tasks.
LF are been identified for social/communicative and
academic purposes .
IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT
Assessment of oral language should focus on a student’s ability to
interpret and convey meaning for authentic purposes in interactive
contexts. It should include fluency and accuracy.
Assessment should be instructive, challenging, engaging, and even
enjoyable.

8. ORAL LANGUAGE
ASSESSMENT
Steps:
Identify purpose
Planning for assessment
Developing rubrics and scoring procedures
Setting standards

9. 1. IDENTIFYING PURPOSE
The oral language of ELLs is typically assessed for one of three purposes:
1.1 For initial identification and placement of students in need of a
language-based program such as ESL or bilingual education.
1.2 For movement from one level within a given program, (e.g. beginning
to intermediate levels of ESL).
1.3 For placement out of an ESL/ bilingual program into a grade-level
classroom.

10. PLANNING FOR ASSESSMENT
You can begging planning for classroom-based assessment of oral
language by identifying instructional activities or tasks you are
currently using that can also be used for assessment.
You can also describe and categorize instructional activities in
terms on language functions. (see e.g.)
Part of planning for assessment is deciding when to assess them in
groups.

11. One important step in planning for assessment is the outline the
major instructional goals or learning out-comes