Assessing Speaking

Tomoyasu Akiyama (2003)Assessing speaking: Issues in school-based assessment and the introduction of speaking tests into the Japanese senior high school entrance examination. JALT journal 25(2) 117-141
This article 1)explores the possibility of speaking test implemented into in-school, and entracnce examination using the framework of "usefullness" (Backman and Palmer 1996). He also 2)collect data about feeling and opinions selandary level teachers in Tokyo have in their mind about speaking tests, and 3)conducted speaking tests toward many students in Tokyo, using a variety of tasks like role-play, speech, description and interview. He then used IRT to examine the item fit and students level fit. This article is maybe expanded version of his article in STEP bulletin, and more interesting because it searches for the possibility of speaking test comprehensively from theoretical aspect like 1) to empirical testing aspect like 3).