Assessing oral language

It's impossible to assess listening with young learners at the start of the process of learning English. They are too young to show their understanding.

• False

• True

One way to assesses listening skills from the beginning is by using

• predictions

• commands

• dictation

In this activity, older young learners take notes during the first few minutes of a story and then discuss the important points.

• “Stand up & talk”

• "Take turns"

• “Turn & talk”

• "Stand up & turn"

Check all the listening subskills:

• Identify main ideas or specific info

• Describe a picture

• Discriminate between sounds & words

• Understand differences in grammar (singular-plural, present-past)

• Infomation gaps

Check all the nonverbal ways children can demonstrate their learning.

• predicting what comes next

• completing ad cloze activity

• Circling/ Pointing to a picture, object, word.

• Numbering pictures in a sequence

• Using their thumbs up/down

Children can show comprehension through oral/written production. Check some of the ways they use:

• Retell major episodes in a story or identify and correct mistakes in a story retelling

• Filling in a graphic organizer

• Providing short answers to questions.

• Drawing a picture

In assessing listening, it is important that the students:

• circle the correct answer

• listen to the audio twice

• pause the audio

• purpose of the task

Why is it difficult to assess speaking?

Speaking can be assessed

• Holistically

• Analytically

• during class discussions

• pair/small groups work

• Using dictation

Repetition, chanting, singing songs, information gaps, retelling, describing, guessing games, presenting a project, role plays are tasks that can be used for assessing...

• Listening

• Speaking

• Reading

• Writing