Using oral assessment in law: opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Oral assessment encompasses a range of different types of assessment. In many contexts, however, oral assessment has certain specific features: it is interpersonal; it tests spoken, rather than written, communication skills and, by foregrounding dialogue and argument, it can encourage deep learning. The research outlined in this paper suggests that, unsurprisingly, some students feel particularly anxious about oral assessment, which affects their experience of it. That anxiety seems particularly to come from a fear that they do not have the skills necessary to do well in oral assessment. Many students, particularly those who are conscious of the difference between oral and written assessment, find once they have completed the assessment that their concerns are unfounded. However, students who perceive an oral assessment as a dialogue or an argument tend to see it as more challenging and prepare more carefully, and in a more in-depth way. Thus, in order for oral assessment, of whatever kind, to be successful, the assessment and the criteria for assessment need to be structured in such a way as to reduce focus on presentational skills (which cause anxiety) and encourage students towards dialogue and argument.