The Testing of Speaking Skill

17 Therefore, sometimes some students choose to be passive in speaking class. e. Lack of Encouragement It takes some courageous to start speaking in another language. Some learners may be reluctant to speak because they feel discourage to speak in front of whole class. Another, they may feel inconvenient to speak because they feel that they do not have any chances to speak. The teachers should see and be aware of this. This may make the students to be passive in classroom activities. The solution of this is the teacher should make groups or pairs, so they are motivated to speak.

5. The Testing of Speaking Skill

Testing speaking skill seems to be challenging because the oral production test has a high subjectivity 28 . It tends to be subjective because it tested orally and assessing spoken language is so difficult because in this test we have to discriminate whether or not the speakers have the ability to speak the target language. For this reason, in testing speaking, to be wise is a must to make the test valid and reliable. Moreover, the evaluation of speaking needs some guidance or scales of to what extend people have the ability to speak in foreign language. It needs guidance to let the testers have a standard that have to be required by the test takers. According to Harris, there are some components that are scored in speaking test. The components that have to be scored are pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. 29 Then, the criteria of speaking assessment are adapted from Harris’s speaking rubrics. The components of the score are illustrated such as bellow. 28 Heaton, Op. cit., p.12. 29 David P. Harris, Testing English as a Second Language, New Delhi: Tata Mc.Graw- Hill, 1969, p.84. 18 Table 2.1 Speaking Rubrics No. Criteria Scale Description 1 Pronunciation 5 Has little foreign pronunciation. 4 Clear enough to be understood. 3 The pronunciation leads to misunderstanding. 2 Very hard to understand. Must frequently be asked to repeat. 1 Unclear pronunciation 2 Grammar 5 Makes only little error on grammar and word order. 4 Occasionally makes errors and unclear meaning. 3 Makes frequent errors of grammar and word order. 2 Grammar and word-order errors make comprehension difficult. 1 Makes some errors in grammar which leads to unclear meaning. 3 Vocabulary 5 Use of vocabulary and idioms like native speakers. 4 Sometimes uses inappropriate terms. 3 Frequently uses wrong words Inadequate vocabulary. 2 Misuse of words and very limited vocabulary. 1 Vocabulary limitations so extreme and impossible to make conversation. 19 4 Fluency 5 No hesitation in speaking like the native speakers. 4 Speed of speech seems to be slightly affected by language problems. 3 Speed and Fluency are rather strongly affected by language problems. 2 Usually hesitant: often forced into silence. 1 Speech is so halting stop moving impossible to make conversation. 5 Comprehension 5 Appears to understand everything without difficulty. 4 Understand nearly everything at normal speed, although occasional repetition may be necessary. 3 Understanding with slower than normal speed with repetitions. 2 Has great difficulty following what is said needs frequent repetitions. 1 Cannot be said to understand even simple conversational English. Adapted from David P. Harris: Testing English as a Second Language The rubric above is used to reduce the subjectivity of the test. In case, to judge the skill that the students have is not easy to do because judgments are sometimes subjective. For the example is discriminating the skill of grammar; once it can be judged good, but the criteria of “good” itself is an opinion or a point of view. Therefore, to assess the performance of speaking will be better if the assessor is two or more assessors. 20

C. The Correlation between Listening Comprehension and Speaking Ability

As what have been explained above, speaking need complex skills to be learned and it also takes courageous. It means that speaking in target language may not easy to some learners. There is a skill which correlates to the process of speech production. Snow stated “Listening is the language skill used most often and the channel through which students get much of their language input.” 30 Not only can listening activity be a native exposure for students, but listening also can be used for teacher in developing students’ pronunciation. The better the input that the listeners get, the better the pronunciation will be. Harmer stated “Listening is good for our students’ pronunciation too, in that the more they hear and understand English being spoken, the more they absorb appropriate pitch and intonation, stress and the sounds of both individual words and those which blend together in connected speech.” 31 However, Broughton and friends argued that “Good a student may be at listening and understanding, it need not follow that he will speak well. A discriminating ear does not always produce a fluent tongue.” 32 Wong also argued that having a good listening does not always reflect the fluency of communication. 33 Broughton and Wong’s point of view is sometimes true because in real communication people who do not talk a lot do not mean that they do not understand the interlocutors. Although good listening does not always reflect good speaking, in fact, listening can lead learners to speak. Moreover, it is impossible to speak like native if the speakers do not know how native speak. At least, they have role models of how to speak. Like what Harmer stated in How to Teach English “One of the main reasons for getting students to listen to spoken English is to let them hear the different varieties and accents – rather than just the voice of their teacher 30 Don Snow, Op. cit., p.10. 31 Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English, England: Pearson Longman Publisher, 2007, p. 133. 32 Geoffrey Broughton. et. al., Teaching English As A Foreign Language, New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 76. 33 Wong, Op. cit., p.3.