A Speaking Achievement Test for Junior Middle School Students learning English as Foreign Language in China

1. Introduction

Languge testing together with other kinds of testing， to some extent， typically and massively assciates with the feelings of anxiety and powerlessness， in the sense of that it commonly determins the winner along side the looser， expecially in the highly competetive school context of China. In fact， testing in general plays a significant role in the education system in China. Different from other kinds of test， the English language testing in China shares a shorter history.

Considering the education system in China， students are acquired to learn English as a school suject， and to perform as good as they can in a great deal of the English language tests. Even though， the tests are well developed to be able to access students ability of using and grasping the English language accurately and efficientely， there are some issues are left to be desired. One notable problem is that the tests are frequently lacking of the speaking part， intending to access the speaking competence of students. Therefore， this essay would aim to try this problem out， and hopefully make certain comtribution to the English language testing in the fundamental education in China being improved and well grounded.

2. General description

2.1 The English language test in Chinese junior middle school in general

Concerning the nature of the test， it could be defined as paper-pencil language tests in terms of method， which is refered by McNamara （2000：5） to “tests take the form of the familiar examination question paper， （...） [which] are typically used for the assessement either of separate components of language knowledge （...） or of receptive undertanding”. On the other hand， regarding the purpose of the test， it could be classfied as achievenment test. As McNamara （ibid： 6） identifies that achievement tests “accumulate evidence during， or at the end of， a course of study in order to see whether and where progress has been made in terms of the goals of learning （...） [and] should support the teaching to which they relate”. The test is highly syllbabus-bond. As it is illustrated in Junior Middle School English Currilum Reuqirements （2001） that test takers have up to 100 minutes to complete the test and the test in junior middle school is normally taken both in the middle of each term and at the end of each term， in order to achieve a somewhat comprehensive understanding of students leanring progress， there is no doubt that the type of the text belongs to the catagory of achievement texts.

2.2 The content of the English language test in junior middle school in China

2.2.1 Listening

The listening part comes first for always in the tests. It aims to assess students listening comprehension ability. The English full-time junior middle schools nine-year compulsory education curricula （for trail implementation） （MOE， 2008） developed by the Ministry of Education of the Peoples Republic of China （MOE）， functioned as a general guideline which must be applied in the junior middle schools throughout China. According to this guideline， the listening tests should “emphasize on assessing students ability to understand and ferret out information within a given target language context of interaction”.

2.2.2 Reading

Following the listening part comes the reading test. The reading test intends to assess students vocabulary range， grammar knowledge and skills， as well as their ability to read 3 short passages （each about 100-150 words） and consequentially answer the questions based on their comprehensive understanding and reading skills. To a large extent， it applies the classic and widely used multiple-choice format.

2.2.3 Cloze

The Cloze tasks might occur before or sometimes after the reading tasks. Comparing to the listening and reading tasks， this part is more likely to account for the least proportion in the test as a whole. Test-takers could get a score out of 10 in this part. Students are asked to choose correct answers from four choices for the 10 blanks in a short passage with approximately 120 words. It aims to assess students abilities to understand and infer meanings from vocabulary， sentence， and paragraph levels.

2.2.4 Writing and translation

Writing and translation tasks are used to assess students ability of communicating ideas using written English. It constitutes 21% of the total scores. Specifically speaking， test-takers can gain a score out of 25 points. For translation， students are acquired to translate sentences from Chinese to English by using the given words or phrases. On the other hand， students are asked to write a composition of no less than 45 words based on the information provided （e.g.， pictures， maps， topics， outline， or situations etc）.

3. Suggested speaking test

It has been identified above that the Junior Middle School classroom based tests of English exclude assessing the speaking competence and oral skills of learners. However， with regard to the High School Entrance Test of English （HSETE）， which is taking the speaking test as well， it is reasonable to prepare learners to be able to have better understanding of oral tests in general， and hopefully to manage the HSETE with confidence and well prepared strategies. More importantly， the aims of English language learning in China， is to be capable of put what the learners have learnt from school education， into practice in real life situation； hence， school administers alongside teachers， are responsible for making efforts to assess the oral skills of learners （MOE， 2008）. Prior to the designing of the speaking test， rationales have been presented to be supportive.

In the mean time， viewing speaking as a productive skill， which could be “directly and empirically observed” （McNamara， 2000： 140）， several factors may contribute to the variation of the observations and need to be taken into considerations beforehand. Among other things， principally， the target learner group that would be the potential test takers should be defined in the first place.

3.1 Defining target learner group and learners goal

With respect to the development of a suitable speaking test for the target learner group， the needs analysis should also be conducted in advance. To begin with， it worth noting that this suggested speaking test is designed on the basis of my teaching experience， and hopefully would be piloted in the school which I used to work for.

The learners are aged from 12 years old to 15 years old. The average number of students in each class would be 50. Besides， there are estimated 12 classes in one junior middle school studying in the same grade. In other word， there are approximately 600 students who are from the same grade and therefore they are supposed to take the same test， at least in their own school. However， there is a chance usually coming once a year for the students taking the identical test together with whom come from the same city， or even the same province. Hence， it raises a challenge for the rater as well as the administrator.

Nonetheless， this essay would limit the target group studying in grade 8. Likewise， there are estimated 600 learners who are going to participate in the speaking test. They are mostly independent users in B1 level corresponding with the descriptions of CEFR （Council of Europe， 200： 24）， since they have finished five years of English language learning in primary schools followed by junior middle schools.

As a result of learning and teaching English without the target language environment， there is a strong tendency showing that most of learners have no strong motivation or self-reflection in developing their speaking skills. Therefore， teachers confront a problem that asks them to make effort to cultivate students to develop their interests in speaking by designing somewhat meaningful and motivating test.

3.2 Designing the test

3.2.1 Type of speaking skills would be accessed

It is worth noting that the current speaking test of High School Entrance Test of English aims to assess the spoken production skill of learners， which would be relatively easy for administrative purposes， but might be unsatisfactory in terms of lacking interaction strategies being involved， and in turn， would probably mislead the learners to underestimate the importance of interactive and communicative function of English language. Thus， this essay would focus on the assessment of the learners spoken interaction skill. Meanwhile， on the purpose of assessing the spoken interaction skill， learners would “act alternately as speaker and listener with one or more interlocutors so as to construct conjointly， through the negotiation of meaning following the co-operative principle， conversational discourse” （CEFR， 2001： 73）.

3.2.2Validation procedures

This test will be trialed before being piloted. The potential trial population would be one class from grade 8 in the school which is previously taught by me. Moreover， the test-takers participating in the trial one， are expected to give feedback on the test. The data collected and feedback information collected from the trail test and test-takers will be carefully analyzed by using PASW， in order to discover any possible correlations. Finally， the test would be piloted and used by all the learners from grade 8. It is worth noting that revisions or changes might be recommended during the whole process.

4. Conclusion

In a vast country like China， which enjoys a notable numerous populations of English language learners， the English language test consequentially plays an important role in the education system as well as learners life. Thus， it is imperative to evaluate and enhance the quality of the English language test used for assessing students performance and English language learning process in the junior middle schools.

Although， the speaking part was introduced with thoughtful considerations， because of the large population of the test taker and the comparably small number of the test rater， there are certain concerns about the practical issues that need further studies. However， the speaking test， in turn， contributes greatly to the route of development in English language teaching and learning for Chinese middle school education.

References：

[1]BYGATE， M. Theoretical perspectives on speaking[J]. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics，199818：20-42.

[2]CHAN， C. K. K.， AND N. RAO（ed.）. Revisiting the Chinese learner： Changing contexts， changing education： Hong kong： Faculty of Education[J]. Comparative Education Research Centre， The University of Hong Kong，2009.

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[4]The MINISTRY of EDUCATION of the PEOPLESS REPUBLIC of CHINA[M]. Junior Middle School English Currilum Reuqirements. Beijing： Peoples Education Press，2001.

[5]The MINISTRY of EDUCATION of the PEOPLESS REPUBLIC of CHINA. The English full-time junior middle schools nine-year compulsory education curricula（for trail implementation）[M]. Beijing： Peoples Education Press，2008.

[6]TURNER， J. Assessing speaking[J]. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics，1998，18：192-207.

【作者簡介】刘林林（1987-），女，宜宾职业技术学院，硕士，讲师，研究方向：高等教育，英语教学。