Microsoft Word language assessment theory with practice

B. Speaking 
“Assessing learners’ speaking ability is of central concern for all 
language teachers as most people spend more time speaking than reading or 
writing” (Csépes & Fekete, 2019, p. 98). For a successful assessment of the 
learners’ speaking skills, teachers need to create lifelike tasks that will 
uncover students’ ability to “interpret and convey meanings for authentic 
purpose in interactive contexts” (Rukmini & Saputri, 2017, p. 265). To 
create such valid and reliable activities, teachers need to have a good 
understanding of the
(i) nature of the speaking skill; 
(ii) basic principles of task design; 

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Language Assessment - Theory with Practice
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(iii) rules for scoring and evaluating the speaking skill. 
Summative evaluation procedures have been discussed in detail in a 
number of previous publications (e.g., Brown & Abeywickrama, 2019; 
Hatipoğlu 2017b, 2021; Heaton, 1990; Hughes, 2003; Madsen, 1983), but 
very few sources explain and review formative classroom assessment of 
speaking (e.g., Ayas et al., 2020; Can Daşkın & Hatipoğlu, 2019a, 2019b). 
Therefore, in this chapter, the focus is on formative assessment procedures 
that language teachers can use to identify whether or not students are 
learning and progressing as well as to adjust their instruction so that it 
benefits students maximally.
The speaking formative assessment tasks should: 
(i) be effectively embedded in lesson plans and learning activities; 
(ii) provide tailor maid feedback that makes students aware of gaps 
in their knowledge and skills; 
(iii) teach students to self-evaluate. 
Examples of each of those principles of formative assessment are given 
in the following sections: