This document discusses challenges in teaching and testing speaking skills. It is divided into four parts: 1) defining speaking and its genres, 2) how to teach conversation skills, 3) common evaluation methods, and 4) ideas to improve teaching and testing. The key points are that speaking encompasses different genres beyond presentations and interviews; conversation is the most important skill but often not taught or tested; and evaluations should match what is taught in the classroom.

1. Challenges in the teaching and
testing of speaking
John Campbell-Larsen
Cameron Romney

2. This Presentation
• Part one: What is speaking?
• Part two: How do you teach conversation?
• Part three: How is speaking (often) evaluated?
• Part four: Ideas to take away.

3. Part one
What is speaking?

4. Four Skills
A Balanced Syllabus
Speaking
25%
Listening
25%
writing
25%
Reading
25%

5. Language in use
Daily language use
Conversation
85%
Other
15%

6. “It [speaking] is the skill by which
they [learners] are most frequently
judged … It is the vehicle par
excellence of social solidarity, of
social ranking, of professional
advancement and of business.”
Martin Bygate (1987), p. vii

7. Genres of speaking
• Monologue (Lectures, Presentations, speeches
etc.)
• Power/rights differential dialogue (Interviews,
Formal Debates/ Discussions, etc. )
• Transactional (Service encounters, etc.)
• Conversation

8. Participant Question
How much time do you spend in
each of these genres?

9. Characteristics of Conversation
“Genuine conversation is characterized by the uneven
distribution of information, the negotiation of meaning,
… topic nomination and negotiation by more than one
speaker, and the right of interlocutors to decide
whether to contribute to an interaction or not. In other
words, in genuine communication, decisions about who
says what to whom and when are up for grabs.”
David Nunan (1987), p.137

10. Characteristics of conversation
• It is not primarily necessitated by a practical task.
• Any unequal power of participants is partially
suspended.
• The number of participants is quite small
• Turns are quite short
• Talk is primarily for the participants and not for an
outside audience.
Cook (1989), p. 56

11. Characteristics of interviews
• Pre-planned, highly structured with time limits
• Often rehearsed
• Uneven distribution of speakership rights
• Topic controlled by task and/or examiner
• Roles are (mostly) adhered to
• Language is formal/neutral
• Structure is Q/A adjacency pair

12. Example Video

13. Part two
How do you teach conversation?

14. Creating a venue for conversation
• The classroom must be reconfigured as a
social rather than institutional psychological
space
• The learners must orient to a social rather
than institutional English language identity
• The learners must be made aware of the
purposes of the above
• The leaners must be afforded TIME to do so

15. Example Video

16. Part three
How is speaking (often) evaluated?

17. Common forms of Evaluation
• Written tests
• Presentations
• Task observations, e.g. role plays
• Interviews tests

18. Written Tests
Positives
• Easy to evaluate large groups of students
• Student know what to do
Negatives
• Not speaking
• Often receptive skills not productive and/or
linguistic knowledge

19. Written test example
• Before (1)________ down for a nap, the boy
(2) _________ down the book.
A: Lie
B: Lay
C: Laid
D: Lay
E: Laying
F: Lying

20. Presentations
Positives
• Individual activity
• Clear outcomes
Negatives
• Minor speaking genre
• Rehearsed, often memorized
• Vocalization of written English

21. Example Video

22. Task Observations
Positives
• Concrete outcomes, i.e. did they accomplish
the task?
Negatives
• Usually transactional in nature
• Dependent on partner’s ability
• Dependent on knowledge of the context

23. Issue with role-plays
“Role-playing ability can be compared with
acting ability, and of course not everyone is a
good actor. Nor is being a good actor equivalent
to being a good communicator. Furthermore,
role playing is a specialized kind of acting,
requiring ad-libbing ability. Not every good actor
is a good ad-libber.”
van Lier (1989), p. 502

24. Interviews tests
Positives:
• Students produce lots of language (ideally)
Negatives:
• Minor speaking genre
• Highly structured with time limits
• Controlled by interviewer
• One-sided interaction

25. How do you evaluate speaking?

26. Example Video

27. Example Video

28. Example Video

29. Part Four
Ideas to take away

30. #1:
Speaking has
DIFFERENT
genres

31. Speaking Genres
• Just as teaching poetry doesn’t prepare a
student to write a business letter, teaching a
student how to give a presentation doesn’t
prepare him/her to have a conversation.
• The same for reading, writing, listening,
grammar, vocabulary, etc.

32. #2:
Conversation is
THE
skill

33. Suggestions for teaching
• Make conversation (real conversation) a
priority
• Raise student awareness of aspects of a good
conversationalist
• Correct bad conversation behaviors
• Teach conversation/communication skills
• Teach interactive skills

34. #3:
Test what you teach
and
teach what you test

35. Suggestions for evaluation
• Make sure your evaluation matches classroom
realities.
• If you have a fixed evaluation method, include
classroom activities to match the evaluation.

36. Challenges in the teaching and
testing of speaking
John Campbell-Larsen
Cameron Romney

37. Example Video