Korean Job Discussion Forums

[katydid]

Hi...

Next week, I have to give my students a midterm, and I decided to try a speaking test format, where they will come into my office and take the test. I've never given a speaking test before, but I think it'll be better than doing a written test, as it may cut down the cheating. Who knows?

Obviously, it'll be very easy to have them answer my questions, "What's that," "How old are you," etc., but does anyone know, outside of maybe finding the Korean equivalent of standard questions learned in ESL, how to easily get my students to ask me a question, to show they know what to ask? I'm only giving them 10 minutes each, so I don't want to spend most of the time trying to explain to them what I want them to do.

How about asking them say, two questions, and then saying "Now, your turn"? I'd like to see that they have learned something and are not parroting me.

LOL Maybe I am making too big a deal out of this? Still, any ideas for a first-timer would be greatly appreciated!

Katy

[eamo]

It totally depends on their level. If they are beginners, or even intermediate-low, a 10 min oral test would be horrifying for them.

I give oral tests all the time. I found the best way to do it is to give a list of topics/questions beforehand. Give each student a few minutes and ask them to think about 3-4 questions from the full list. 2-4 minutes actual test time is more realistic for all but advanced students.

If you think they are not being tested enough during the oral, fire out a few trickier questions about the topic.

The point of an oral test should be fluency, pronunciation and sentence construction. The actual content, i.e. what questions you will ask and what they should answer, does not need to be a big surprise. It's not a test on their knowledge of a subject.

[kimcheeking]

I regularily give oral tests to my students. My standard is 7-10 minutes each regardless of level. I start off by setting them at ease, make jokes or something silly.

I then ask personal questions somehow related to the material we have covered and close with an oral report of their strengths and weakness. Finally I ask if they have any questions or suggestions for me.

Fluency is my highest priority, followed by evidence of use of new structures covered in class.

[Bulsajo]

You could try giving them an ETS verbal proficiency test.
Try a search with ETS, Princeton Review, Verbal, assessment etc.

[katydid]

Ooof...ETS. I'm on the 17th floor here and need NO ONE to jump out my window!

I planned on giving maybe 10 questions, but maybe now I'll just do five, and some will be lucky enough to have two of them be "How are you?" and "What is your name?"

Good ideas so far...can't wait to hear more!

[Zyzyfer]

Why don't you ask them to interview you? It's pretty easy to incorporate a lot of information into an interview, so...

[weatherman]

I find having the students come in pairs and have them interview each other or ask each other questions is a safe way of doing an oral test. Of course, I get to ask questions also. Having them come in pairs really makes them feel more comfortable, and making the students feel comfortable is very important. As Kimchiking does, I also like to personalize the questions so they are more relevant to their university life. Plus, when coming in pairs you can give them a sheet, an A sheet and a B sheet based on their proficiency to guide them through the exam.

[OiGirl]

For an idea of a standardized oral test, check out Phonepass: http://www.ordinate.com/
They have a demo test, but you'd have to call a US phone number! But looking over the site and examining the sample questions may give you some ideas.

I give the IPT (IDEA Profieiceny Tests) to my elementary-school students. On the oral section, when you are eliciting a question from the student, the script goes, "Ok, now you be the teacher. Ask me..."

Good luck! I hope we get to hear how your testing turns out!

Oi!

[katydid]

Man, either I have some really smart students or I am lobbing softballs at them! Definitely for the final, I'll have to make the test longer, cause everyone is breezing right through it.

[Kleenex]

You probably have finished by now, but I would still like to make a point (or clarify Eamo's) about how to evaluate students. Eamo said:

[gypsyfish]

A little late, but ...

Another thing you can do is show them a picture and have them describe it or ask questions about it. This is especially good for grammar specific questions.

I've recently tried having two students interview each other. The only problem I found was that, since I let them choose their partners, they came in to the test with prepared dialogs, which wasn't terrible because it showed that they took it seriously. I had some prepared questions written on slips of paper and had them ask each other the questions to introduce a little spontaneity into the activity.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

I used to do speaking tests in Taiwan.

Basically what we did was have the students read off of sheets aloud, and then remove the sheets to see if they memorized the correct answers to the questions.

Q: How are you today?

A: I am fine. How are you?

Q How old are you?

etc etc...

[kimcheeking]

[Circus Monkey]

kimcheeking,

7-10 minutes per student? I used to have 45-50 student per class. Assuming the minimum (7 min) with no breaks or time between one student finishing and the next one starting, it works out to over 5 hours. How did you do it?

CM

[kimcheeking]

12 student maximum.... and a 2 hour class. or run it over two single classes. I work at a very unique University. The teaching is great, but the pay is crap.