Vocabulary: After noting the students’ pronunciation levels, the teacher moves to vocabulary. Vocabulary comprehension and vocabulary production are always two separate banks of words in the mind of a speaker, native as well as second language. The teacher should encourage the students to have a large production vocabulary and an even larger recognition vocabulary. For this reason it is helpful to evaluate the students on the level of vocabulary they are able to produce. The teacher listens for the level of vocabulary the students are able to produce without prompting and then decides how well they are performing in this area.
Accuracy: Grammar has always been and forever will be an important issue in foreign language study. Writing sentences correctly on a test, though, is not the same as accurate spoken grammar. As your students speak, listen for the grammatical structures and tools you have taught them. Are they able to use multiple tenses? Do they have agreement? Is word order correct in the sentence? All these and more are important grammatical issues, and an effective speaker will successfully include them in his or her language.
Communication:A student may struggle with grammar and pronunciation, but how creative is she when communicating with the language she knows? Assessing communication in your students means looking at their creative use of the language they do know to make their points understood. A student with a low level of vocabulary and grammar may have excellent communication skills if she is able to make you understand her, whereas an advanced student who is tied to manufactured dialogues may not be able to be expressive with language and would therefore have low communication skills. Don’t let a lack of language skill keep your students from expressing themselves. The more creative they can be with language and the more unique ways they can express themselves, the better their overall communication skills will be.
Interaction: Being able to say what you mean with a foreign language is one thing, being able to interact with others is another. Ask your students questions. Observe how they speak to one another. Are they able to understand and answer questions? Can they answer you when you ask them questions? Do they give appropriate responses in a conversation? All these are elements of interaction and are necessary for clear and effective communication in English. A student with effective interaction skills will be able to answer questions and follow along with a conversation happening around him. Great oratory skills will not get anyone very far if he or she cannot listen to other people and respond appropriately. Encourage your students to listen as they speak and have appropriate responses to others in the conversation.
Fluency: Fluency may be the easiest quality to judge in your students’ speaking. How comfortable are they when they speak? How easily do the words come out? Are there great pauses and gaps in the student’s speaking? If there are then your student is struggling with fluency. Fluency does not improve at the same rate as other language skills. You can have excellent grammar and still fail to be fluent. You want your students to be at ease when they speak to you or other English speakers. Fluency is a judgment of this ease of communication and is an important criterion when evaluating speaking.
