1. Oral Ability Testing
Text: Arthur Hughes

2. Introduction
• Objective: successful interaction-
comprehension + production.
• No formal testing at early stages, only
informal observation for diagnosis

3. Setting the tasks
Content
• Operations:
• Expressing: requirements, opinions etc.
• Narrating: sequence of events
• Eliciting: information, direction, service etc.
• Directing: Ordering, instructing, advising etc.
• Reporting: descriptions, comments etc.

4. Content
Text type:
• face to face or telephone conversation as dialogue or
multi-participants
Addressees and topics:
• Not specified
Objective: to come as clear as possible about the
nature of ability to be tested

5. Sample Criteria
Criterial levels of performance (RSA)
Grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are
peripheral but not excluded.
• Accuracy (intelligible communication)
• Appropriacy (clarify intention)
• Range (availability of structures or vocabulary)
• Flexibility (taking initiative, changing direction or
adapting to new topic)
• Size (simple to complex utterances)

6. Referred institutions
• RSA- Royal Society of Arts,
• ACTFL- American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages,
• IRA- Interagency Language Roundtable,
• ARELS- Association of Recognized English
Language Schools

7. Format
Interview:
• Obvious but imbalanced in power.
• Asking for information is absent.
Interaction with peers:
• Common group discussion.
• One can be dominated by other. so careful selection
is necessary.

8. Format
Response to tape-recording:
• Reliable as same audio or video for everyone.
• Inflexible- no follow up of students' response.
Obtaining a sample
• Objective: For properly representing each
candidate's ability and reliable evaluation

9. Author’s Advice
1. Usually long and feasible (30 mins). For placement
test- short (5 mins)
2. Selecting a wide sample as a representative of a
specified content
3. Carefully planning an adaptive interview
4. Fresh starts: more than one format, more than one
tester, more items in a format, space and second
attempt.
5. Training for interviews with patience with various
materials

10. Author’s Advice
6. Using a second tester
7. L1 friendly topic
8. Using a quite room with good acoustics
9. Making candidates comfortable
10. Conducting according to collected information.
11. Giving enough talking time to candidates.

11. Elicitation techniques
Questions and requests for information:
• Avoid yes/no questions
• e.g. Can you tell me what you think of ...?
Picture:
• Single picture for description, multiple pictures lead
to narration

12. Elicitation techniques
Role play:
• For other language functions.
Interpreting:
• Simple specified tasks to test production and
comprehension.
• e.g. acting as an interpreter.

13. Elicitation techniques
Discussion:
• On a topic or to come to a decision with a partner.
• e.g. an upgrade to school facilities.
Tape-recorded stimuli:
• A description, response or simulation.
Imitation:
• Repetition of long sentences.

14. Techniques to be avoided
• Prepared monologue (stressful)
• Reading aloud (L2 speaker at a disadvantage)

15. Obtaining valid and reliable scoring
• Clearly recognizable and appropriate descriptions of
criterial levels are written
• trained scorers
• only relevant aspects of performance to be counted
• More than one scorer.

16. Proficiency descriptions
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Holistic and analytic scoring. Use of balanced
weightings and conversion table.

17. Training of scores
• Target group: testers/ interviewers
• Objective: to improve accuracy of criterial levels,
pin point intention, identify contexts etc.
• Considering non-linguistic features and avoiding
unnecessary ones.

18. Conclusion
• More than one testers are essential for the sake of
scoring reliability.
• Requirements: time and effort
• Important consideration: Backwash