0 Children learn best by communicating orally

0 School give opportunities for practice of routine language, for

imaginative play, action rhyme & songs, response to narrative
texts & participation in narrative & simple description.
0 Older children learn moving into conversations, narratives,
simple recounts & reports.
0 School programs moves toward content-based activities
0 L2 learners are expected to produce a wide range of genres &
more extended talks incorporating complex background
knowledge.
0 The features of language use depend on the purpose, the
audience, the norms & expectations of the context.
0 A mode continuum how language use differs according to the
context & the nature of the cognitive demand on the child.
0 Mode channel of language use (spoken or written)
0 Figure 6.1 the mode continuum (Dewianka, 1992)
Different characteristics requires these language uses to be treated
separately for assessment purposes
Spoken language Writing
0 Is transitory
0 Must be processed in
real time
0 Features prosodics
0 Stress
0 Intonation
0 Pitch
0 Volume
0 Pausing
0 Requires the knowledge &
ability to write
(orthography)
0 Requires careful planning
& structuring of the text
0 Reading
0 Requires the ability to read
& interpretation strategies
to make meaning

The purpose, audience and norms of the language use context
0 involve unplanned
speech & are more
casual in nature.
0 Are dialogic
0 involves planned speech and is
more formal.
0 Speaker must monitor the
audiences response & adapt
0 They need to meet the
audiences expectations of the
discourse structure (e.g.
morning talk)
0 The listeners need to be
attentive & supportive

The nature of oral language ability
The complexity of oral language assessment of YL is compounded by maturational factors; they
may not participate since they do not have the cognitive & social skills needed
0 The curriculum may be written as goals & objectives or as
outcomes
0 Typical genres: recount, debate, anecdote, procedure,
description, interview, casual conversation, planning.
(Derewianka, 1992)
0 It may also contain a list of functions written as categories of
behavior.
0 Functions give teachers & assessors the scope of oral
language that is expected to be learned & assessed.
0 Grammar & vocabulary may also be listed as part of curriculum
covering oral language
0 Some characteristics of oral language ability (Bachman & Plamer,
1966)
0 Organizational knowledge
0 Grammatical
0 Textual
0 Pragmatic knowledge
0 Functional
0 Sociolinguistic
The scope of assessment mirrors the scope of the teaching & learning
program
0 Teachers & assessors need to assess childrens oral language
skills accordingly.
0 Examples (shown in Table 6.2):
0 Ability to discriminate sounds, stress & intonation
0 Knowledge of a growing range of vocabulary
0 Knowledge of a growing range of grammatical structures
0 Ability to predict meaning from a range of cues
0 Ability to listen for explicit and implicit meaning
0 Ability to take responsibility for their own learning
0 Ability to use communication strategies
0 Confidence and motivation

0 They need to see the value of participating in the assessment tasks
which require a genuine need to communicate
0 The tasks need to incorporate devices to maintain interest:
0 Colorful & interesting pictures
0 An action or doing component
0 Puppets, etc.
0 And an element of surprise or unpredictability to keep their attention
Selecting oral language assessment tasks
0 The tasks will be more useful & more engage YL & help children feel less
anxious, when more support is available e.g. surrounding things, visual
support, or conversational support.
0 Introductory activity is important to tune the child into the topic & into the
language use, also in-task support to help YL successfully completing the
tasks.
0 Task difficulty level: the range of vocabulary, the complexity of the grammar,
communication strategies, and register variation.
0 Cognitive requirements of the oral language task.
0 Cognitive, social or emotional factors.
0 Cultural differences
Selecting oral language assessment tasks
0 The interaction topic
0 The level of formality
0 The number of participants the relative status of the participants
0 The familiarity of the participants with each other
0 The gender of the participants
Selecting oral language assessment tasks
(as a basis for an oral assessment task)
0 This should be avoided until literacy skills are known to be
secure.
Selecting oral language assessment tasks
0 An oral interaction task(s) can be devised to assess oral language
formally in the classroom.
0 However, it is often assessed informally through teachers observation
opportunities will not be available
0 Oral language can take place only if the pragmatic climate is right
(Cameron, 2001)
0 L2 students alongside L1 students learn the target language real
danger that L2 students have little opportunities to talk
0 As a principle of good teaching, teachers need to ensure that children
have equal opportunities to participate & to learn through interaction, &
themselves to collect the best samples of childrens performance.

Opportunities to assess oral language use in the classroom may not be available
0 Consider with the articulation of words & longer stretches of
language in discourse rather than in isolation
0 Is best assessed in the context of language use.
0 Central criterion intelligibility (clear enough to be understood)
0 L1 negative inference
0 Pronunciation is not usually a long-term problem if YLs have good
models in their input & many opportunities to use language.
Assessing pronunciation
0 Through oral language use and literacy tasks.
0 Whether YLs have the vocabulary they need to understand & use
language for a range of purposes in a range of different contexts
0 Why? Because the development of vocabulary knowledge is integral to
that of language ability.
0 In the classroom, vocabulary can be assessed constantly & informally.
0 Grow older ~ literacy skills develops
0 Writing, using pictures cloze, word-matching tasks, picture labeling
0 Advanced learners: multiple-choice Qs
0 It is best assessed in an integrated way through the language use
0 The assessment can use analytic scales focusing on vocabulary within
the context of the language use task.
Assessing vocabulary
0 Why? Because its assessment begins in oral language & continues in a more
focused way in writing tasks.
0 Grammar ~ accuracy
0 Grammar knowledge is involved when examinees understand or produce
utterances grammatically precise & contextually meaningful (Purpura, 2004)
0 Through observation (checklist) involving analysis of childrens oral language
0 Teachers need to be aware of childrens propensity to employ formulaic
expressions or chunks of language as signals for growth rather than signs of
non-learning
0 The assessment should be informed by the knowledge of SLA & designed to
encourage this growth.
Assessing grammar
0 As they progress & grow older, observations & analysis can move
towards their knowledge of grammatical form at the sentence &
discourse levels.
0 Sentence level: prosodic forms (stress, intonation, use of inflectional affixes,
use of voice, mood, word order)
0 Discourse level: cohesive forms, use of logical connectors, information
management forms & interactional forms.
Assessing grammar
0 A central tool for assessment of oral language in the classroom
0 In classroom instruction, group & individual readings of stories,
discussions, class surveys, literature-based tasks, games, & so on.
0 Interaction with the teacher & with other children.
0 Oral language assessment often occurs as part of a cycle of teaching
(shown in Table 6.3)
0 It can take place in the 1
st
, 3
rd
, 4
th
, 5
th
, and the 6
th
activity.
0 It may be used for formative or summative purposes.
0 Table 6.4 Guidelines for observing oral language (McKee, 1999)
Observation
0 Is a means of closer analysis and a record progress, e.g,
interview with teacher, giving instruction, etc
Oral records in portfolios
a) Assessment during
teacher-student
interactions
b) Self-assessment
help children to monitor
their progress, e.g.
check list items of what
they can do


Oral records in portfolios
0 News telling involves children telling other children what they have done
recently
0 Story telling show the entire sequence of the picture first, and ask for the
story
1. Tasks involving speaking only
0 Picture talks students describe a picture


1. Tasks involving speaking only
0 Categorization tasks children are asked to choose from a set of four
pictures which one is different or does not belong to the other three
1. Tasks involving speaking only
0 Oral presentation children talk
about their own experiences without
preparation. It is easier if they can hold
and show objects or picture
0 Other speaking-only genres
depending on their age and level of
proficiency, children may be asked to
do the following in a speaking-only
situation, e.g, how to do something
(procedure), describe something

1. Tasks involving speaking only
Question-and-answer tasks simple one word questions are useful
to elicit vocabulary and formulaic expressions in beginning learners
We can extend question and answer tasks by doing the following:
increasing the complexity of the questions
Including new vocabulary(sometimes unknown) into the questions
adding an element of surprise and unpredictability (dialog P.86)
supporting new language in questions with gestures, objects, pictures
to help children to predict from the context
Supporting new language by asking simpler or explanatory follow-up
questions where needed

2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
Question and answer tasks can be extended according to the
proficiency level of the children, and can be used in individual or
whole-class sessions
Extending the language questions and, adding supporting visual aids
and questions alters the characteristics of the task and the changes
should be noticed by teachers
2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
0 Oral interview
o assess childrens ability to interact using both listening and speaking
skills.
o A script, guidelines on the questions to be asked, the stages of the
interview and the closing may be prepared
Stages to do oral interview:
warm up to make the children comfortable; begin with easy
questions
A probe to show their limit of his skill
A wind-down bring the child back to a level when he is able to talk
comfortably and finish with a feeling of success


2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
Oral interview is not an ideal vehicle to elicit young learners best
performance
It must be done with adults who are familiar to the children
The use of objects and pictures
It needs to be planned carefully
The language to be elicited is broad enough to represent what
the child is expected to do

2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
0 Mini-dialogues and role plays to check childrens learning of
learned routines

0 Slot and filler role play children are asked to create and perform a
dialog using some of their own words or ideas
2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
0 Oral information gap tasks (barrier tasks)
Require children to interact and use language to complete the task.
Examples:
a. Simple sequence or pattern making
b. Assembly
c. Construction
d. Location
e. Grids
f. Route finding
g. Spotting the difference


2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
o Oral information gap tasks assess childrens ability to give and receive
instructions. It is easy to produce
0 Partner and group discussion
can be used for assessment if children are trained to take turn and
listen to each other, and have practice taking part in discussions
topics can be about exchanging personal information, share likes and
dislikes, describing, etc
2. Tasks involving both speaking and listening
o a childs listening ability is strongly influenced by the nature of
spoken text that are being encountered
o Spoken texts varies according to the purpose, topic and
context
o It may be part of conversation, extended talk, teacher talk
made up of extended input with questions, responses, asides
incorporated
Assessing listening only
o It may be accompanied by gestures, pictures or actions
o Stress and intonation may help children with their understanding
o Different accents, fast speech, and long stretches of input may hinder
understanding
o Background knowledge and information available in context may be
useful
o Listening is more difficult than speaking because it is invisible and
has to be assessed directly
Assessing listening only
There needs to be a reason for listening
children need to be prepared for listening tasks. They need to know
beforehand why they are listening
Teachers should give children chance to show they have understood
by asking them to perform an action like drawing a picture, writing a
bit, etc

Assessing listening only
pictures, simple charts, puppets, and other visual materials might be
required as a support in assessment tasks for listening
comprehension
Kinds of texts which should be used for listening tasks:
Avoid using familiar text will only give an assessment of childrens
accumulated knowledge of text in question, not their ability to
comprehend new language
Text which introduces some new knowledge or an element of
unpredictability

Authentic samples of spoken language involving the stops, and start,
backtracks, interruptions typical of real interactions
Assessing listening only
0 Response is required to demonstrate understanding
0 Action tasks excellent ways to assess listening comprehension like
in Simon Says game. Children might copying each other, checks with
individual children may be needed. Instruction can also be given, for
example to draw something
0 Total physical response tasks tasks that involve children in a
physical response to a request or command

0 The request or command can be something that take children outside
of the classroom to assess childrens knowledge and build their
confident

Assessing listening only
o It means some skills in speaking or writing will be required
0 True/false tasks raising for different colored piece of paper for true or
false
0 Aural cloze a written passage is provided with words deleted at regular
or irregular intervals and learners are asked to listen to the text and write in
the missing words
o the focus is to distinguish the words being used
o Story cloze is the same task using a story as the text
0 Noting specific information children are asked to listen for a specific
information and note the answer. The answer might be set out in written
form as multiple-choice items


Assessing listening only
0 Grids and charts used to stimulate language use. ( see fig. 6.8). It
is useful to assess listening comprehension

0 Matching tasks children listen to a picture being described and
they point or circle it

0 Spot the mistake children listen to a familiar story but there are
errors in the story. They need to signal the mistake and explain it. It
can also use picture sequence
Assessing listening only
0 Asking children to paraphrase or summarize what they hear, fill
gaps in a conversation, or to answer comprehension questions
based on a spoken text
0 Responding to a series of comprehension questions children
listen to a text and answer a series of oral or written
comprehension questions

Assessing listening only
0 Children should be given the questions first before they hear the text
0 Dictation involves children listening to a text and writing it down as
they hear it
0 It enables the teacher to check childrens perception of the sound of
words, understanding as it is difficult to write down a series of sounds
if you dont understand

Assessing listening only
0 Oral language, speaking and listening is the foundation for learning
foreign/second language
0 It enables children to interact with new ideas and establish new concept
through interaction with others and the world
0 Oral language in terms of objectives or outcomes as genres or functions
underlying skills are described and assessed in formative assessment
0 Assessment of oral language requires knowledge, the quality of
classroom interaction, understanding the issues in tasks
selection/difficulty, knowledge to assess grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation
0 The assessment of oral language is as the center of language
assessment in young learner program, oral language provides the
foundation for literacy development

Summary