An Investigation of Oral-Expression Evaluation Procedures at AbdelhamidIbnBadis University of Mostaganem: The case of second year LMD students of English

Abstract

T he following work tackles the issue of the evaluation of speaking skills in the module of Oral Expression (O.E) by teachers of English at the University ofMostaganem, Abdelhamid Ibn Badis. More specifically, it seeks to examine how teachers at the department of English proceed to assess their students, both summatively and formatively with a view of improving EFL learners’ speaking skills. This descriptive study uses triangulation to increase the validity of the research. Data were gathered through self-completion questionnaires administered to second-year LMD learners and to teachers of Oral Expression at the Department of English; through weekly observation of two teachers and their students during O.E classes and through semi-guided and informal interviews of teachers of Oral Expression. The study casts an eye on the many different aspects affecting evaluation, namely: the setting of objectives to the O.E course, the development of a framework for the teaching and assessment of speaking skills, the design and use of tasks that help reach the set objectives, the provision of effective and timely feedback on students’ performance, the use of comprehensive assessment criteria and checklists (grids, scales), etc. The results have shown that some learners whose teachers make use of specific criteria and who introduce students to formative techniques of assessments are able to focus on areas of improvement, thus, confirming our hypotheses. On the other hand, results revealed that some other teachers hold a traditional vision of assessment and are not aware of some formative assessment practices. Also, the absence of clearly defined criteria and rating scales/checklists for speaking assessment makes the results of tests unreliable and does not help learners improve their oral proficiency. This study has certainly its limitations, but its findings revealed interesting implications.