Speaking Tests Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Speaking Tests - Assignment ExampleThe OPI is a face-to-face or telephonic reference that consists of three phases a warm-up phase, a series of level checks and probes, and a wind-down phase. This is one of the most widely accepted visitations for speaking ability and is used by political sympathies agencies (The Defense Language Institute, The Peace Corps), streamleting institutions (Educational Testing Service) and the Federal Interagency Language Roundtable. in that location are some(prenominal) advantages to the OPI system of testing. It is easy, quick and apparently undefiledly forecasts the degree to which a foreign-speaker allow for be able to channel in English. Unlike written tests, it actually tests English speaking ability which, as with all languages, is in all separate from the ability to read and write. The test can be performed quickly and the tester can interview multiple people in a single session. This is particularly importance within the context in which this test is often given.Thus graduate students from foreign countries are often given the test in the first place they can perform grading and/or teaching duties in American universities. Resources for such testing are limited, and so the ability for one tester to perform multiple tests in one day is vital.There are, however, detractors who ... Basically, Messick suggests that the OPI tests do not actually represent real-life conversations. Part of the problem with OPI tests are that they do not really reflect the sheer range of speaking that occurs in actual life. Thus there is monologic speaking (one person), duologue speaking (two people) or multiple speakers, such as in a meeting with several colleagues. The OPI tests flow to test only one of these the dialogue. As Brown (2003) and Bonk (2003) have suggested, some speakers do intermit with dialogue and some with discussion activities. A test that tests one over the other is bound to be somewhat limited in its scope. Anothe r basic problem with this type of test (although it may in fact be shared with all speaking tests) is the variability of the interviewer and his/her affect upon the test results. Each interviewer will have a unique speech style, pattern and intonation that may help (or hinder) the interviewee (Brown, 2003). Thus the test result may be seen as a co-score reached by both the tester and the subject, rather than an accurate measure of the non-native speakers communication prowess.This tendency may be countered by careful training of the tester and the evenly careful process of self-evaluation and objective supervision which must occur. Within one center periodic test interviews can be undertaken in which the same candidate is tested by all the testers (with suitable renumeration of course) and the tests and then(prenominal) compared. If test results vary too much from the mean then some additional training etc, is by chance needed. As McNamara (1997, 2002) suggests, the more educated , skillful and eloquent the