Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Smee]

Hi,
My public middle school has said I'm in charge of creating and prepping students for the speaking test this midterm (and probably for the final next year). Anybody ever have any experience with this? (Sorry, this is a long post, but please bear with me).

I asked my coteachers what they wanted, what they expected from the test, some guidance, they said it was up to me. I asked how long it was supposed to be, how many questions, what topics, etc., they said it was up to me. So I guess I should interview each student for 45 minutes on topics ranging from current events to ambitions to Kart Rider strategy. No, seriously, they didn't give me any guidelines, or any expectations, so I'm kinda curious what other people do or have done.

My only experience with these was last year when I graded a speaking exam for advanced students. I don't remember the rubrick, but speaking was a very small part of the exam. Basically I asked them three out of about twenty questions they already had seen . . . questions about themselves, their hometown, their hopes for the future. Really simple stuff, because these kids were pretty low level (in spite of being designated advanced). For some of the students I had to read a Konglishy story and ask them comprehension questions, but most of the students couldn't do that.

So, I'm curious about what to ask. On the one hand, both my Korean colleagues and I teach from the same textbook, and since the grammar and reading portions of the test come from the textbook---at least I'm pretty sure most of it does---I'm tempted to make my exam based on that, too. On the other hand, though, I only see each class once or twice a month (compared to three times a week for the Korean teachers), so there's no way to even come close to covering all the main points in the textbook. We just do basic dialogues and usually don't even touch each chapter's themes. So while I wish the students could successfully talk about each chapter, it's just really unrealistic to expect them to be able to do that, especially if I only see them 5 or 6 times a semester.

So I'm thinking about just preparing a list of basic questions. These are more helpful for them in real life situations anyway. Have those of you who have done this given them the questions in advance? IMO, that's fair . . . I was thinking to type up maybe 20 possible questions (maybe more), some of them perhaps based on the textbook, and choosing 3 or 4 to do maybe a minute or two with each student. Or maybe even designating one or two of the stories from the texts, and having the students summarize them (way too hard, I think).

Then, I'm curious how you grade them. I've always been a big fan of spontanaity (sp?) and creativity. For example, when I've done tests last year and at my old hagwon, it would be quite clear that many students had memorized their answers and were just mentally reading off their prep sheets. That's lame, and those got low scores from me. That doesn't demonstrate "speaking," but rather parroting. I know I'll need a rubrick, a sliding scale, that takes into account accuracy, grammatical correctness, pronunciation, creativity, etc. . . . so did you just make a 1-5 scale for each category and take the average? (Man, my students suck at pronunciation . . . if 5% remember how to make "th" I'll be surprised).

Also, how do you account for difference in levels? I mean, honestly speaking, most of my students have pretty poor speaking skills, but a student with mediocre skills will have, relative to everyone else, about a "B" grade. However, that doesn't mean he's really a B-level speaker . . . he may suck, but just may suck a little less than others. And of course some of my students have lived overseas and are fluent, so an average student, relative to them, would appear to have D-level skills.

Okay, sorry for the long thing . . . I've got some time, but I'd like to submit a draft of my stuff as soon as possible in the hopes of getting some type of response from my colleagues. I'd also like to prep my students as much as possible . . . not give them the answers, but just coach 'em up on pronunciation and teach them about how the test will work. Honestly, I get the feeling that this means a lot of work for me, but will account for, like, 0.03% of their actual grade, but whatever . . . I still wanna put in the effort.

So any tips or advice you can give will be appreciated. Thanks.

[BS.Dos.]

For 45-minutes for each student! Crickey. Good luck. How many students do you have? This testing could run on for a few weeks by the sounds of it.

In my HS last semester, I had about 3-4 minutes with each student, just enough time to ask them what they did last weekend, what are you going to do this weekend, tell me about your family/home etc, basic stuff, but more than most could handle. In terms of grading, there were 5 areas, which I forget now, but were something like, fluency, pronunciation, confidence, speed and something else and for each assessment each area I had to give them either a circle (- 5 points) a triangle (- 10) or a cross (- 15 points) which was then subtracted from a score of a hundred.

Given that I only had a couple of minutes for each of my 180 students, which was spread over a 2-week period, it was difficult evaluating each student as critically or as thoroughly as I'd have liked. Basically, if they attempted to speak English in a reasonably articulate manner without staring at their feet for a couple of minutes while they thought of an answer, then they got a good score as that was about as good as I could hope for. Some of the students only spoke in words, which gives you some idea of their general ability.

[Smee]

Haha, no, I was joking about the 45 minutes, since they gave me no guidance at all on the time frame. I figured one or two minutes per student . . . three questions, plus the time it takes for them to go in and out of the room.

So, did you make up the questions yourself? Did you pass them out ahead of time?

[BS.Dos.]

Yeah, I wrote out about 10/20 different question, but as it turned out, I pretty much asked most of them the same 4/5 questions. Asking them about their interests etc just kept getting the same answers i.e. "play computer games". Getting them to describe something worked ok (home, sister etc)

I'd only been at my school a couple of months when I did it last year and didn't really know what my predecessor had done with them, but this semester, I've a much better idea of what they're capable of etc and I know (based on what I've done with them) the type of questions that they should be able to answer. They also know me a lot better now as well now, so I'm not expecting any long drawn out pauses where I have to save them from dying of embarrassment by spoon feeding them the answers.

[passport220]

I did two last year for every student in my boy�s middle school. It worked out that I had about one min. per student.

Questions I ask every student:

- What is your name?
- What is your student number?
- How old are you?
- Do you have any brothers or sisters?

I would ask 2 or 3 additional questions from the list below (mix it up or the later students will learn from the first students what is going to be asked):
- What is your favorite food?
- What is your favorite sport?
- What is your favorite subject in school?
- What do you like to do in your free time? � or �What is your hobby?
- What is your dream for the future?

I would ask �Why� as a follow up question for the older or more advanced students to add difficulty.

I was looking for answers in complete sentences, pronunciation and pace. With the exception of the most advance students, there was little spontaneity or creativity forthcoming. With the more advanced when you ask the follow-up question like �Why is math your favorite subject?� you could better gage their true speaking level. With most of the students I just got �I like play computer game.� types of answers.

[Smee]

* bump *

Good tips so far, thanks. I want to make the tests for grade 2 slightly harder than grade 1, but actually there's not much (if any) difference between their levels. So I think I'll include some questions from their respective textbooks.

[BS.Dos.]

You may find, as I did last semester, that most of the students will simply freeze like rabbits in the headlights, whereas I had a few students who were happy to elaborate and expand (albeit rather clumsily) to my questions. Not surprisingly, those who did deviate and at least tried to engage in a conversation scored much higher than those who fumbled around and answered in words, which were usually verbs.

[DrunkenMaster]

Well, since Ddeubel has been incognito ever since he got that thread locked down, allow me:

http://eflclassroom.ning.com/

You'll find tons of resources there to help you out.

[Bibbitybop]

[Easter Clark]

Forgive me if I seem obtuse, but why don't you ask them questions related to the material you covered in class? Isn't that what they're going to be tested on?

I've found that recording the interviews (on cassette or .mp3 player) allows me to grade more evenly. Have the student say their name / number / section before starting. This is a kind of warmer because they can say those things in English (well, for the most part!). Don't make any marks at the time of the interview--students tend to clam up when they see you marking them while they're speaking! Save the grading for later, when you can do so objectively since all of the interviews will be finished at that point.

Not saying this will work for you, but it's worked for me!

[Whistleblower]

I like to use the Cambridge Copy Collection and there is wide variety of books that you can use to improve young learner's ability with English. Have a look at the following books to purchase:

Primary Activity Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson
Beginner to Intermediate


Primary Communication Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson
Beginner to Intermediate


Primary Grammar Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson
Beginner to Intermediate


Primary Pronunciation Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson
Beginner to Intermediate


Primary Reading Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson
Beginner to Intermediate


Primary Vocabulary Box by Caroline Nixon and Michael Tomlinson
Beginner to Intermediate


I like using these books to help with speaking as well as listening and there are so many activities that can help improve the young learner's English ability.

Otherwise you could create some material that covers some basic areas:

Family
Friends
Jobs
Study
Sport
Food
etc

Then you will be able to create a week of material on a topic and then hopefully it would improve the kid's ability in those topic areas. You could then work on grammar:

Past: How did you get to school?
Present: Where do you study?
Future: What job do you want?

Work on the grammar within the topics as well and it will equip the learners with the knowledge and power to speak confidently for a while. It will take about 6 months to improve the kid's English but all teachers know speaking takes time.

[ddeubel]

Hey Drunker Master, I'm still kicking!

I just let that im"mod"est stuff slide on by.....

Here is the thread he's talking about Smee.

http://eflclassroom.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=826870%3ATopic%3A5210

Nice rubric and place for all student's names. Also see the ppt for a type of photo to show and use for illiciting language from students. They really need some kind of visual otherwise you might not , even in all you wisdom , be able to assess properly......

What might even be better is to have them record on voicethread. I'll be using these voicethreads with teachers next month. They are all set up and students can go there, pressured and record/answer and you can then drink your coffee at home and mark....not really conversation but I'm sure very accurate for assessing level and speaking fluency...

Go to intermediate language practice
http://voicethread.com/#u3968

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com