Oral test

Mr.Vikas Anil Ghadge
RJS College of Nursing

Definition
The oral test is defined as a test in which a person is
encouraged to speak, and then assed on the basis of
that speech .it can be used alone or combined with
test of other skills(underhill1997:1&7).

The oral exam :
-Formal exam
-Subjective test
-Face-to-face interaction/personal contact
-Verbal response
-Immediate response

Definition
 Posing questions to students in spoken form.
 Students must then answer questions as appropriate,
from material they have studied in preparation for the
exam.

Types of the oral test
1. Monologue speaking (presentation):
 Monologue refers to speech given by solo, by
character in a movie, play or performance.
 Students are asked to performs some tasks such as
show and tell where they talk about anything they
choose.
 Students are asked to construct a sentence following a
certain pattern using the information that they are
given.

Topic: Elderly people.
Increased life expectancy means that there are more elderly people than ever
before. Organize these prompts before you talk to the examiners about the
topic for 4-6 minutes:
Suggestion:-
 The role of the elderly in today’s society
 Retirement and free time
 Residential versus home care
You have up to 10 minutes to prepare your talk. You can take notes or make
a brief plan of what you are going to say. Talk to the examiners for about 4-
6 minutes. You can use your notes during your talk, but you cannot read
them aloud. Your production will be recorded.

Types of oral test
In another type of monologue test, a situation is given
but no guidance is given as how to respond, and the
students can respond freely.
E.g.:
a. Your friend has been tired a lot recently. What do
you say to her? (Maybe you should be getting more
rest.)
b. You have been served coffee in a restaurant but you
haven't been given any cream or sugar, and you
would like some. What do you say to the server?
(Could I have some cream and sugar?

2.Dialogue speaking (oral interview)
 It is an open-ended test where the students lead a
discussion with the teacher.
 Students in that kind of test are required to use
conversation skills that they have learned throughout
the course.

3.Multilogue speaking (discussion & debate)
The discussions are student-generated, and students
are put into groups where as a group, they decide on a
topic they feel would be of interest for the rest of the
classroom.

For example
One student acts the part of a police officer , another
a bus conductor, a third a bus- driver, a fourth a
passenger hurrying to visit a sick friend in hospital,
and a fifth a bystander who wants to be helpful. The
passenger hurries to get on the bus and tell him that
the bus is full and that he must get off. The passenger
can see an empty seat and he begins to argue. The bus
is now in the middle of the road and is a danger to
other traffic. Act the roles given.

Design an oral test
Step 1: Setting the scene
1. Identifying the purposes of speaking assessment: Do
we want reliability or validity?
2. Testers base on the students’ performance and ability/
level in English during the course to prepare tasks and
standards as well as instructional objectives and
activities that should meet learners’ needs.
3. Deciding whether or not to make an audio or video
recording of student’s performance
4. Deciding when and how to provide learners with
feedback.

Design an oral test
Step 2: Designing Speaking Test
1.Components in testing: pronunciation,
grammar, vocabulary, fluency, accuracy,
listening comprehension, appropriateness, etc.
2.Preparing a series of questions on a wide range
of topic : family, home, school, hobbies,
sports, books, films, weekends, holidays,
health, careers, traffic, etc.
3. Using clear, brief and helpful instructions.

Design an oral test
1.Using pictures, maps and diagrams
Choose the pictures very carefully will help in
controlling the basic vocabulary required and
determine the type of sentence structure.
E.g.: picture for description, narration,
comparison, instructions.
Make sure that students can see the pictures for a
few minutes before they have to describe them.-
Give pairs or groups of students a simple task to
perform

Using pictures, maps and diagrams

Design an oral test
A. Pictures for description
 Can use single pictures, posters and strip cartoons.
 When preparing for a test, give them plenty of
practice describing pictures of objects, people and
scenes.
 Examiners can ask students to talk about pictures in
pairs: describing the people, objects and places....
But don’t ask them many questions
Imagination

Design an oral test
B. Pictures for comparison and contrast
 Give each student two pictures and ask to talk about
that.
 Use several newspapers and puzzle books containing
pictures which are similar to each other but require to
spot minute differences

Cont…
With pairs of the students: can give each of them
some simple puzzles and problem- solving tasks
E.g. : Pictures from “ Composition through Pictures,
beginning composition through Pictures and Writing
through Pictures....( J. BHeaton, Longman)

Design an oral test
C. Sequences of pictures
A sequences of pictures telling a story or
process ( or mix up the order of process) can
be used to test speaking ability
Individual students

2. The short talk:
Vague subjects or subjects about which an
individual student knows very little or should be
avoided.
E.g.:“Should countries spend huge sums of money
on space exploration?”
“Do demonstrations serve any useful purpose?”
“Do people ever really learn anything from the
mistakes they make?”

Marking scheme
When scoring students’ performances, the examiners
should concentrate on what individual students are
doing with the target language and how they are using
it to achieve their purpose.

Advantages
1. Direct personal contact with candidates opportunity to
take mitigating circumstances into account
2. Flexibility in moving from candidates strong points to
weak areas.
3. Requires the candidate to formulate his own replies
without clues.
4. Opportunity to question the candidate about how to
arrive answer.
5. Ability to test depth and breadth of candidates
thinking process and logic of arguments.
6. Opportunity for simultaneous assessment by two
examiner.

Disadvantages
1. Difficult to evaluate so many things at once( grammar
, vocabulary, pronunciation...).
2. Difficult to choose what criteria in evaluating oral
communication.
3. It is rather time consuming, particularly if taped
scored later.
4. Lack standardization
5. Lack objectivity and reproducibility of results (halo
effect)
6. Permit favoritism and possible abuse of contact
7. Suffer from undue influence or irrelevant factors

Oral test

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