Abstract:

An English speaking test that streamlines the assessment and grading process through the innovative use of technology is being developed and tested at a Japanese national university through funding provided by the Japanese Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) Program. Innovation in this project refers to the following developments. Speaking prompts are presented to test-takers on an electronic tablet computer, allowing for a variety of formats including images, text and video to be used. In the current environment, this may also reduce the possible risk of COVID-19 infection by eliminating the need of students to handle testing materials. This test also features tasks that elicit interaction between test takers, increasing the kinds of output produced and allowing for interactional competence to be assessed. Tasks used in many globally recognized English speaking tests are based on Western culture that Asian college students may not be able to directly relate to, acting as a barrier to assessing their true language abilities. In response to this, we tried to localize topics and base them on students’ daily life: part-time jobs, pastime events, and situations that don’t require knowledge that may be alien to the test takers. Several themes were trialed in order to identify which ones appealed to test takers and promoted conversation and interaction.

Use of this testing system did not allow for evaluation in real time, so the interviews were unobtrusively recorded through the prompt-delivery system, meaning that the performances can be subsequently viewed by assessors anytime and anyplace through remote access. The grading process is facilitated through a Moodle LMS interface and database system. In this presentation, the following aspects of our research will be discussed:
1) development and piloting of the interview process
2) images and video prompt creation
3) testing environment development
4) using Moodle as an electronic rubric grading system,
5) video capture system and the tablet computer prompt delivery system
6) video storage online.

Piloting methods prior to full-scale deployment will also be covered.

Keywords:

Conversation, speaking, test development, interactive competence, Moodle LMS, speaking proficiency.