Testing Speaking Skills

Testing speaking using visual material: 

---

7 
Without the need to comprehend spoken or written material, it is possible to test 
speaking using pictures, diagrams, and maps. Through a careful selection of material, the 
testers can have control over the use of vocabulary and the grammatical structures 
required. There are different types of visual materials that range in their difficulty to suit 
all the levels of learners. One common stimulus material could be a series of pictures 
showing a story, where the testee should describe. It requires the testee to put together a 
coherent narrative. Another way to do that is by putting the pictures in a random order of 
the story to a group of testees. The students decide on the sequence of the pictures 
without showing them to each other, and then put them down in the order that they have 
decided on. They then have the opportunity to reorder the pictures if they feel it is 
necessary. 
Another way of using visual stimulus is by giving two testees similar pictures 
with slight differences between them, and without seeing each others pictures they 
describe their own pictures in order to figure out the differences. However, there is a 
problem in using visual stimulus in testing speaking, it lies in that the choice of the 
materials used must be something that all the testees can interpret equally well, since if 
one testee has a difficulty understanding the visual information, it will influence the way 
he/she is evaluated (Kitao & Kitao, 1996).
The portfolio approach: 
Butler and Stevens (1997) state that “O’Malley and Pierce (1996) suggest that the 
portfolio approach in the case of an expanded oral profile, widely used for assessing 
reading and writing can also be used effectively to assess oral language.” Profile or 
portfolio information, reviewed periodically, can be used to enhance teaching and 

---

8 
learning for students and to communicate to students, parents, and other teachers what 
students can already do and what they need to improve. A teacher would systematically 
collect and record a variety of oral language samples for students that would help 
capturing the range of their communicative abilities. 
Samples of students’ oral language tasks may come from individual tasks or from 
group or interactive tasks. Individual tasks are those that students perform alone, such as 
giving a prepared report in front of the class or expressing an opinion about a current 
event. Group tasks require students to interact with other students in the accomplishment 
of a variety of goals, such as debates, group discussions, role plays, or improvised drama. 
Both categories of tasks are important in providing students with a range of activities that 
stretch their speaking abilities and in helping them to focus on adjusting their speech to 
the audience. In selecting oral samples for a profile, teachers would also consider the 
continuum of formal and informal language that is represented in the classroom.