Assessing Speaking

Assessing speaking requires to consider several elements of the process of learning. Not only pronunciation, but also grammar, vocabulary and of course listening are aspects that take part of the speaking performance of a student. The last mentioned (listening) is directly related to speaking, according to Brown, " No speaking task is capable of isolating the single skill of oral production. Concurrent involvement of the additional performance of aural comprehension, and possible reading, is usually necessary". This means that, oral performance is supported by aural performance. 

Another aspect that is necessary when we assess speaking is the specification of criteria. Once we design a task is important to consider that test-takers can provide an infinite number of options to a question. For this, the objectives of the assessment need to be clear and easy to guarantee dependable evaluations.

The last relevant aspect in assessment speaking is related to the effectiveness of the scoring the procedures, which should be reliable. In order to accomplish this, Brown states, " Because of the above two characteristics of oral production assessment, it is important to carefully specify scoring procedures for a response so that ultimately you achieve as high a reliability index as possible".