Over several decades, numerous approaches applied to EFL have resulted in theories and reasonings to teach and learn English. Although Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the most commonly used path nowadays, it has only resulted in minimal development of university learners' oral skills; i.e., English-beginner-level students usually attain…

This study investigated the effects of two types of classroom instructions on EFL learners' oral proficiency by implementing teachers' judgment. Two intact classes of EFL university students studied a compulsory subject of their department under two different types of classroom instruction. The first group of students was trained with explicit…

EFL learners often have problems to speak properly in English. As the purpose of teaching speaking is to improve the learners' oral production, language teaching should maximize language use in the classrooms (Haozhang, 1997), which is achieved through implementing proper teaching techniques to require learners to learn and practice the language…

This article critiques the current arrangements for the assessment and testing of English in early-years settings and primary schools in England. It is broadly supportive of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. It is highly critical of the Year 1 phonics check, and of the tests of reading and of grammar, punctuation and spelling at the end of…

This study examined the effect of the combination of task repetition and post-task transcribing (TRPT) on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of L2 oral performance and their subsequent development. Taiwanese university students (N = 39) were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: TRPT, task repetition (TR), and control group, and…

This book presents an approach to teacher education and professional development that emphasizes carefully deconstructing fundamental instructional practices that are complex and often not visible through observation, definition, or brief explanation. Its goal is to assist teachers in learning how to enact specific practices, referred to as…

In this case study, I will show how directing a movie on grammar can help students improve their oral skills as well as their language competency, team working and planning skills, and also teach them about learning itself. I will present an innovative teaching project that uses the medium of film to get students engaged with grammar and that aims…

The Missionary Training Center (MTC), affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, needs a reliable and cost effective way to measure the oral language proficiency of missionaries learning Spanish. The MTC needed to measure incoming missionaries' Spanish language proficiency for training and classroom assignment as well as to…

This paper describes project work undertaken in order to map out and analyze language teachers' experiences and views of various assessment principles and procedures with a particular focus on those that promote learning and relate to grading. A questionnaire survey in a nationally representative sample of 605 language education teachers in Sweden…

The developing discourse which moves assessment away from a measurement model towards one of learner empowerment and the development of assessment for lifelong learning sets the context for this article. The aim was to investigate the effect of self-assessment on foreign language learners' oral performance ability. Twenty EFL students of foreign…

This paper reports a case study of the nature and extent of progress in speaking skills made by a group of upper intermediate instructed learners, and also assessors' perceptions of that progress. Initial and final interview data were analysed using several measures of Grammatical and Lexical Complexity, Language Accuracy and Fluency. These…

In this revised edition in the popular New Ways Series, teachers have once again been given an opportunity to show how they do assessment in their classrooms on an everyday basis. Often feeling helpless when confronted with large-scale standardized testing practices, teachers here offer classroom testing created with the direct aim of helping…

We describe an exploratory study carried out within the University of Milan, Department of English the aim of which was to analyse features of the spoken English of first-year Modern Languages undergraduates. We compiled a learner corpus, the "Role Play" corpus, which consisted of 69 role-play interactions in English carried out by…

This article explores aspects of early language and literacy that may predict later literacy development. It explores a range of assessment procedures used for oral language, vocabulary, sentence structure and phonology and early reading and writing. The article then describes a small-scale study which highlights the disconnections between the…

This paper suggests group role-play as an oral exam alternative, describes how such an exam can be set up, and provides examples. The examples discussed draw on vocabulary, grammar structures, and topics presented in most textbooks and can be designed for use in the first two years of language learning. (JL)