Oral Language Assessment

2012 ◽  
pp. 139-161
Keyword(s):  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Assessment

A psycholinguistic approach to oral language assessment

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Van Moere
Keyword(s):  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Assessment

Oral Language Assessment from an Ecolinguistic Perspective. An Empirical Investigation of Symbolic Competence

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-43
Author(s):  
Evangelia (Evelyn) Vovou
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Construct Validity ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
The Common

Abstract Although today's educational environments are to a great extend multilingual, large-scale foreign language examinations test heterogeneous groups with homogeneous examination practices, without taking all ecolinguistic parameters into consideration. Trying to minimize this limitation by calibrating examinations to the sociolinguistic and intercultural competence definitions of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), secures to an extend construct validity. However, the question still arises, if “one test fits all”. This paper focuses on oral foreign language assessment discourses, where discursive coconstruction and social nature of performance prevail. Adopting the ecolinguistic approach (Fill, 1996) the paper investigates the notion of symbolic competence (Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008) in the context of oral language examinations. By analyzing oral data the paper seeks to address, how ecolinguistic parameters concur in examination discourses and to what extend this effects the validity of measurement.

What Audacity!

2011 ◽  
pp. 168-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter B. Swanson ◽  
Patricia N. Early ◽  
Quintina Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Increase Student Achievement ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
The World ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Authentic Language ◽  
Multiple Obstacles

Promoting student engagement in the second language classroom can be difficult for teachers. Multiple obstacles such as perceptions of the irrelevance of authentic language applications and the affective barriers (e.g. performance anxiety speaking before peers) tend to hinder student oral language performance. For teachers, especially for beginners, other obstacles appear such as being given the most challenging assignments with little to no professional support. Many times these educators scramble to squeeze the most out of every minute in the classroom for instructional purposes while trying to increase student achievement. Three free and open source software options are presented and findings from two studies of focusing on the use of Audacity indicate multiple benefits for both teachers and students. Afterwards, the authors demonstrate how to use Audacity for oral language assessment and discuss its implications for the world language classroom.

Phonological Assessment as an Integral Part of Language Assessment

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Hoffman ◽  
Janet A. Norris
Keyword(s):  
Oral Language ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Communication Situations ◽  
Semantic Complexity ◽  
Realistic Communication ◽  
Speech Sound Development ◽  
Children's Speech

Research indicates that preschool children presenting delayed phonological development are also likely to show delayed development of morphology, syntax, and discourse structure. Moreover, a child's phonological performance is typically better when labeling pictures and speaking individual words than when organizing syntactically more complex utterances as parts of narratives or when speaking in conversations. Such findings motivate us to assess children's speech sound development as an integral part of their abilities to organize language within realistic communication situations. To this end, we engage the preschool child in play and storybook topics that represent every day events. We use oral language scaffolding techniques to prompt the child to talk about sequences of acts within these events. We then describe the child's ability to (a) organize their discourse structure with respect to temporal, causal, and intentional links; (b) express semantic complexity; and (c) utilize conventions of syntax, morphology, and phonology. Our analysis ends with intervention goals that integrate all of these aspects of language.

scholarly journals Oral Language Assessment in the Preschool and Primary Grades: Definitions, Measures, and Theoretical Lens

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-396
Author(s):  
Denise Hudspith Heppner
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Emergent Literacy ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Emergent Literacy Skills ◽  
Comprehensive Literature Review ◽  
Information Center ◽  
Assessment Measures ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The overarching goal of this literature review is to improve the understanding of the importance of oral language to critical emergent literacy skills and provide an overview of available assessment measures for use within the classroom.  An overview of the components of language (i.e., content, form, and use) is provided.  Measures of oral language gleaned from a comprehensive literature review of the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database are discussed, organized according to the components of language they are assessing.  An examination of the theoretical foundations of language acquisition and development provides an orienting framework for educators.

Examining negotiation in peer group oral assessment

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.20
Author(s):  
Zhengdong Gan
Keyword(s):  
Oral Language ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Collaborative Reasoning ◽  
Assessment Format ◽  
Testing Paradigm

This article reports on a case study of negotiation that occurred in peer group oral interactions under assessment conditions. Discourse analysis was used to illustrate how participants negotiated and co-constructed the assessment format itself as well as meaning exchange sequences. Analyses of the data point to the advantage of using peer group discussion task in generating the interaction patterns representative of natural conversational situations. By concentrating on the situated dynamics and process of peer group functioning, this study also demonstrates the importance of peer learning opportunities that resulted from collaborative reasoning under assessment conditions, which have typically been ignored in the conventional testing paradigm. Implications of these findings over validity issues in oral language assessment are discussed.

13. DISCOURSE APPROACHES TO ORAL LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 243-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F. Young
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Many ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Oral Interaction ◽  
Fertile Area

This chapter begins with a careful look at a sample conversation and examines the many layers of interpretation that different academic traditions have constructed in order to interpret it. These layers of interpretation include linguistic forms, nonverbal communication, linguistic context, situational context, and the embodied histories that participants bring to interaction. All are incorporated into a rich definition of discourse. The chapter then reviews recent studies that have compared the discourse of oral interaction in assessment with oral discourse in contexts outside assessment to show how different they are. The next section discusses studies that have related ways of speaking to the cultural values of communities of speakers with a view to understanding the cultural miscommunication that occurs in assessment of speaking in a second language community. The review concludes by stressing the wholeness of face-to-face interaction, listing the layers of interpretation of interaction that have not thus far been considered in oral testing, and setting out a potentially fertile area for future research.

Examining negotiation in peer group oral assessment

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.20
Author(s):  
Zhengdong Gan
Keyword(s):  
Oral Language ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Collaborative Reasoning ◽  
Assessment Format ◽  
Testing Paradigm

This article reports on a case study of negotiation that occurred in peer group oral interactions under assessment conditions. Discourse analysis was used to illustrate how participants negotiated and co-constructed the assessment format itself as well as meaning exchange sequences. Analyses of the data point to the advantage of using peer group discussion task in generating the interaction patterns representative of natural conversational situations. By concentrating on the situated dynamics and process of peer group functioning, this study also demonstrates the importance of peer learning opportunities that resulted from collaborative reasoning under assessment conditions, which have typically been ignored in the conventional testing paradigm. Implications of these findings over validity issues in oral language assessment are discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document