Assessing Student Oral Language Proficiency: Cost-Conscious Tools, Practices & Outcomes

Abstract

Second language teachers have an ever increasing abundance oftechnology choices for assessment of student oral proficiency through theadaption of consumer electronics and multimedia devices. The purpose ofthis article is two-fold: (1) to address the benefits and ease of usingdifferent multimedia tools to assess students' oral language proficiencyregardless of grade level and (2) to report the findings of an orallanguage assessment study. Results from the empirical study (N = 128)show that there are manifold benefits of using technology for oralproficiency assessment for both students and instructors. Additionally, thisresearch emphasizes the importance of maximum use of the targetlanguage in the classroom and the importance of aligning assessmentrubrics to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language'sspeaking proficiency guidelines.