Performance-based Speaking Tests: Possibilities in Local Language Testing

Abstract

Drawing on Glenn Fulcher’s extensive work in performance-based language assessment of speaking, this paper explores the assessment of L2 speaking ability in local language testing contexts. For that purpose, I review Fulcher’s influential work that highlights the relationship between the speaking construct, the task, the performance, and the scale, and I provide an overview of various task types, approaches to scale development, and rater-training programs. Then, I argue that local language testing provides a wide range of possibilities for task development, scale design, and rater training due to the opportunity for collaboration with local expertise (students, instructors, policy-makers) and the ability to keep up with the evolving speaking construct in the local context.