Assessing Speaking In Teaching And Learning

Speaking is a complex skill requiring simultaneous use of different abilities, because, here, speakers (learners) need to employ vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and organization of content of speech at the same time. No skill is so difficult to assess as speaking ability.

a. Competencies
The basic competencies written in the curriculum of high school state that students have be able to express:
1. meaning of interpersonal (for socialization) and transactional (to get things done) intends.
2. meaning through short functional text
3. meaning through monolog of long functional texts.
In conducting a speaking assessment, teachers should cover all competencies above. In this case, the teachers should provide stimulants in order that students can perform the oral abilities, such like making dialogue of interpersonal and transactional speeches, thanking, apologizing, introducing, requesting, etc. Making a short of short fuctional texts, like announcement, advertisement, invitation, and conveying a monolog of long functional texts, like procedure, description, recount, report, etc.

 b. Principle of Speaking Assessment 
Brown (2003) provides formulation of micro and macro-skill for assessing speaking skills, but Harris (1996) proposes some simpler aspects to be measured as the following items :

1. Pronunciation

    Including segmental and supra-segmental features

2. Grammar

    The employment of syntactical structure

3. Vocabulary

    The diction (choice of words)

4. Fluency

5. Comprehension

    Undestandability of the speech

The aspects proposed by Harris are sufficient if the speaking assessment is just for asking the students to deliver monolog of long functional texts, but if it is to assess interpersonal and transactional speeches in the form of dialogues, some other aspects should be added like politeness strategy, naturalness of the expression, gesture, etc. 

Source : 

English Language Teaching and Learning:Theory and Practice. Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan 2015