ICTs Applied to Formal Foreign Language Aural-oral Assessment: ORALEX and Communicative Language Competences in English

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This article analyses a computer-assisted system of formal aural-oral assessment of English, appropriate both for the contents taught in the classroom and the communicative language competences acquired when learning a foreign language. ORALEX was designed ad hoc for easing the teacher’s/evaluator’s role. It responds to the need for evaluating learners’ skills in English, following the Common European Framework in a more efficient and effective way: efficient, because ORALEX can boast of disruptive innovation (easy means, excellent results); effective, because ORALEX facilitates group test-taking as opposed to individual face-to-face encounters. Thus, there is a twofold purpose to this article. Firstly, to show how a communicative approach to learning a foreign language is indirectly facilitated by ORALEX. And secondly, to highlight how communicative language competences might be assessed using this same tool effectively, while emphasising the students’ learning autonomy and their performance as active agents of their own linguistic experiences. The article will include a discussion about aural-oral exercises currently being used in ORALEX within the framework of linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences. ORALEX can be used in multiple scenarios: EFL, ESL, bilingual or any other situation where aural-oral skills require testing. Furthermore, its flexibility makes it appropriate for schools, academies, training centres, universities, etc. regardless of the level of the foreign language tested or the number of students or subjects to be examined simultaneously, as long as there is one computer available per student.