Oral Testing in the High School Classroom: Some Suggestions

Abstract

For many years it has seemed that foreign teaching profession has been engaged in a series of revolutions most of which have had their origins in an attempt to reach a consensus as to best way, i.e., the one true way to teach foreign language. Yet despite a few short-lived rallies around a common flag, history of teaching has been marked more by controversy than by consensus (Diller 1-2). The latest attempt at reaching consensus is based on concept of proficiency. Instead of searching for one definitive approach to teaching, a search that Omaggio says has consistently ended in frustration and a sense of failure, we should be identifying an organizing principle, by which our various methods, approaches, materials and curricula might begin to make collective sense (Methodology 330). During decade of eighties term proficiency has become ubiquitous in foreign circles and it is likely that it will remain so. Patricia Cummins, in a recent issue of Foreign Language Annals, writes that during 1990s it is likely that proficiency will play an even greater role in preparation of foreign teachers and other professionals who need a given level of proficiency to perform their jobs. Uniform standards have long been needed, she adds (477). This recent focus on proficiency and uniformity has surfaced in response to a report issued in 1979 by President's Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies in which one of recommendations specifically stated that language proficiency achievement goals for end of each year of at all levels of study should be established (38). Since February of 1982, when first workshop on oral proficiency testing was held in Houston, a number of teachers have been trained to assess level of oral proficiency in speakers of foreign languages using ACTFL/ETS Oral Proficiency Interview (henceforth OPI). It is likely that as more and more of our colleagues become trained in procedures involved in administering OPI, more workshops will be held, and consequently more foreign teachers who want this training will have opportunity to receive it. But, in meantime, what can those teachers who do not have this training, but want it, do? The following suggestions illustrate how basic principles of oral proficiency testing can be used to begin assessing speaking skills of students in a high school setting. Many teachers are already familiar with Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Definitions, standard used to measure proficiency for employees in government agencies. In order to better define ranges of ILR scale to reflect level of proficiency at which most learners in an academic setting perform, ACTFL and ETS recognized need to modify ILR. The juxtaposition of ILR scale and ACTFL/ETS scale in Figure 1 below