VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ HIỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ASSESSING SPEAKING OF
STUDENTS LEARNING NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK
IN A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM
(Nghiên cứu việc đánh giá kỹ năng nói của học sinh đang học
chương trình sách giáo khoa mới, tại một trường THPT ở Việt Nam)

Major

: English Teaching Methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2019


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ HIỀN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ASSESSING SPEAKING OF
STUDENTS LEARNING NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK

other universities.
Signed ..................................
Date ........./............/.............

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am deeply indebted to the individuals that provided support for the completion of
this study.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Quynh supervised the entire study and, most importantly,
read and discussed every aspect and section of this dissertation with assiduity. Her
recommendations also helped to shape the form and contents of the final version. I
am equally indebted for the exceptional friendliness, kindness, and patience that she
demonstrated during my study at ULIS-VNU and my research.
My sincere thanks also go to the Dean - Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn as well as the staff
members at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and
International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU), who are always
so kind and supportive during my study time.
In addition, I would like to express my thankfulness to all the participating students
and teachers at the high school who helped me in my research, especially the
teachers who accompanied me during a long time of my data collection time. The
results I have achieved today partially belong to them.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their motivation for me to
overcome all the difficulties and to become a better me now.
Thanking you all

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2.2. Principles of language assessment .......................................................................8
2.3. Speaking assessment ..........................................................................................10
2.4. A taxonomy of oral proficiency .........................................................................11
2.5. Designing speaking task type assessment ..........................................................13
2.6. Speaking scales ..................................................................................................19
2.7. Criteria for speaking assessment ........................................................................21
2.8. Types of speaking assessment ............................................................................25
2.9. Validity and reliability .......................................................................................29
3. Studies in the field of speaking assessment ..........................................................30
3.1. Speaking assessment in the world ......................................................................30
3.2. Speaking assessment practice in Vietnam .........................................................33
3.3. Speaking in the new textbooks in Vietnam ........................................................34
CHAPTER II. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................37
1. The research design ...............................................................................................37
2. Participants ............................................................................................................39
3. Data collection instruments ...................................................................................39

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4. Procedures .............................................................................................................39
4.1. Conducting the interviews..................................................................................40
CHAPTER III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................................42
1. Results from interviews.........................................................................................42
PART III. CONCLUSION .....................................................................................46
1. Summary of the findings .......................................................................................46
2. Limitations of the study ........................................................................................47
3. Suggestions for further research............................................................................48
4. Recommendation...................................................................................................48
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................49

Increasing use of communicative language teaching methods in classroom settings
for the past several decades have probably helped English teaching professionals to
rediscover the value and importance of speaking in foreign language teaching and
learning. These issues have long been concerned the heart of communicative
teaching approach. Our personality, our self-image, our knowledge of the world and
our ability to reason and express our thought are all reflected through speaking
performance.
In the English language teaching context, speaking ability takes a long time
to develop and requires masteries of many sub-competence such as sound system,
appropriate vocabulary, clear thinking and most importantly the understanding of
cultural settings of the target language. Besides, the interlocutor needs to understand
what is being said to them and be able to respond appropriately in order to maintain
amicable relations or to achieve their communication goals. Alongside with the
focus on teaching and learning of speaking skill, the assessment of this skill raises
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great issues in English language teaching context. It is a fact that the assessment of
speaking must weigh as much as important as the teaching and learning in order to
avoid the negative washback from learners. In other words, the assessment of
speaking therefore requires complicated and thoroughly designed rubrics. A
person's speaking ability is usually judged during a face-to-face interaction, in real
time between interlocutor and candidates.
1.2. The statement of problem
The move from teacher-centred to learner-centred teaching styles brings along
many changes in assessment format. That is from discrete points testing to
communicative testing. However, it is seemingly that in Vietnam there are
incongruities between the teaching practice and testing activities. Inbar-Lourie
(2008: 289) notes that:
The move from an atomized view of language knowledge to what is known as

overview of theories and practice of EFL speaking assessment, with a particular
emphasis on the assessment criteria, task design, and rating scales, validity,
reliability, practicality and related issues. More specifically, the paper will: (a) first
discuss criteria to be assessed during speaking performance, (b) then describe the
major components of the assessment development process (including test/task
design, rating scale development/validation, rater training), (c) and finally identify
some problems that teachers encounter when they conduct speaking assessment as
well as some suggested solutions for the problems.
1.3. The scope of the study
The study will focus on the application of speaking assessment at high school
level whose learners are studying the new national textbooks namely; English 10,
English 11, and English 12 written by Prof. Hoang Van Van and co-authors in 2015.
1.4 Research questions
With this expectation in mind, we may allow ourselves to formulate the
following questions:
1. What task types do teachers use when assessing speaking skill of students
who are learning the new textbook?
2. What criteria do teachers use when assessing speaking performance?
3. What problems do teachers encounter when assessing students’ speaking
performance?
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1.5. The significance of the study
The study on completion provide teachers at high schools guidelines for
speaking assessment including marking criteria, and validity of a speaking test/task.
More importantly, the study raises an issue of language assessment in the high
school final exam format. By which we mean that the exam formats will motivate or
demotivate learners from studying English language. It is a matter of fact that
syllabi consist of four macro skills, namely writing, reading, listening and speaking

communicate their massage to the listeners. In this case, the speaker and listener
should be able to understand each other. The speaker can produce the sounds that
involved the massages and the listener can receive, process, and response the
massages. Byrne (1984: 8) in Temungingsih (1997: 6) further says that speaking is
an activity involving two or more participants as hearers and speakers who react to
what they hear and their contributions. Each participant has an attention or a set of
intentions goal that he wants to achieve in the interaction.
In speaking, there is a goal or a purpose to be achieved by the speaker.
Speaking involves two participants at least. It means that we cannot do it
individually we need partner to communicate in the same language, so speaking is a
process of transferring information, ideas and expressions that used the good form
of sentence in order to make the listener understand of what we are saying. In
addition, speaking is described by Fulcher as much more than just a skill, it is
actually “the ability that makes us human” (Fulcher, 2003).
Speech is also referred to as a „real time‟ phenomenon (Bygate, 1987),
because one has to plan what to say, formulate the words and articulate with
substantial speed as one speaks. Bygate (1987) distinguishes between language
knowledge and language skills; knowledge is what enables people to talk and skills
is knowledge actively carried out in interaction, something that can be imitated and
practiced. He further states that language knowledge is basically a set of grammar
and pronunciation rules, vocabulary and knowledge about how they are normally
used; skills are considered to be the ability to use this knowledge.
Brown (2001: 250) states that speaking is an interactive process of
constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing
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information. Based on that idea, there are three important points that have to be
occurred to the participants of communication (speakers and listeners) to construct
the meaning during the interaction among them. In speaking process, one tries to

comprehensibility denotes the ability of understanding the speaker's intention and
general meaning (Heaton, 1991). Defines comprehension for oral communication
that requires a subject to respond to speech as well as to initiate it (Syakur, 1987).
This idea means that if a person can answer or express the sentence well and
correctly, it shows that he/ she comprehends or understands well. In terms of
language teaching and learning, teachers and learners must do well on all of these
five aspects. Moreover, in a speaking class, a teacher should give stimulus,
guidance, direction and support the students in learning process. It means that the
role of the teacher in learning process is as director and facilitator. Teacher also
should motivate the students to do what the teacher asks them to do. Speaking skills
are an important part of the curriculum in language teaching, and this makes them
an important object of assessment as well.
2. The nature of speaking assessments
2.1. Assessment, testing and evaluation
The term assessment and test are sometimes used interchangeably in many
popular educational situations. However, they are not exactly the same. While tests
are prepared administrative procedures that occur at identifiable times in a
curriculum when learners muster all their faculties to offer peak performance,
knowing that their responses are being measured and evaluated, assessment, on the
other hand, is an ongoing process that encompasses a much wider domain.
Whenever a student responds to a question, offers a comment, or tries out a new
word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the student's
performance (Brown, 2004).
Tests, then, are a subset of assessment; they are certainly not the only form
of assessment that a teacher can make. Tests can be useful devices, but they are only
one among many procedures and tasks that teachers can ultimately use to assess
students. Evaluation is a collection and interpretation of information about aspects
of the curriculum, including learners, teachers and materials for decisions making
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which could make that a student does not pay enough attention to the test,
conditions such as: noise outside, light in different parts of the room, temperature or
conditions of desks and chairs.
Validity
Validity is when the results of the test are appropriate, meaningful, and
useful in terms of the purpose of the assessment. In other words, a test or task
measures what teachers want to measure. When a test has validity, learners
encounter a well- constructed format with familiar tasks, items and directions are
clear, tasks are related to course work and it presents a reasonable challenge for
students.
Authenticity
A test that shows a natural language as is possible, contextualized items,
meaningful topics and real-world tasks is what shows that a test is authentic.
Washback
It refers to the effect of assessment on teaching and learning. Washback
gives the opportunity to teachers and students to give feedback to realize problems
language learning and improve them.
Taking into account these principles, it is necessary to mention Gross (1999)
who establishes at least four functions of a test. She states that a test helps teachers
evaluate students and assess whether they are learning what you are expecting them
to learn. Second, well-designed tests serve to motivate and help students structure
their academic efforts. Third, tests can help teachers understand how successfully
you are presenting the material. Finally, tests can reinforce learning by providing
students with indicators of what topics or skills they have not yet mastered and
should concentrate on. Despite these benefits, testing is also emotionally charged
and anxiety producing.
According to these characteristics, it can be said that a test that follows these

different occasions, with different testees and between different assessors).
The approaches to language testing and assessment dated from early 1970s to
early 1980s. These approaches still prevail today in spite of some changes of the socalled discrete point test and integrative test. The former was constructed on the
assumption that language can be broken down into its component parts and that
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these parts can be tested successfully. These components consist of language skills
and language units. The later consisted of cloze tests and dictation (Brown, 2004:
8). By the mid 1980s, the language testing shifted to communicative language
testing approach. The very central tenet of communicative language testing is that
the tasks are designed to represent authentic activities which test learners are to be
expected to encounter in the real world outside the classroom. Brown (2005)
identifies five requirements that make up what is to be called a communicative test.
The requirements in question are (1) meaningful communication i.e. the test needs
to be based on communication that is meaningful to students, that is, it should meet
their personal needs. It should promote and activate language which is useful for
them. Making use of authentic situations can increase the likelihood that meaningful
communication will be achieved. (2) Authentic situation i.e. communicative test
offer students the opportunity to encounter and use the target language receptively
and productively in authentic situations to show how strong their language ability
is. (3) Unpredictable language input i.e. the fact that in reality it is usually
impossible to predict what speakers will say; this natural way of communication
should be replicated in a communicative test. (4) Creative language output i.e. the
fact that in reality language input is largely dependent on language input to prepare
for one‟s reply. And (5) integrated language skills i.e. a communicative test will
elicit the learners‟ use of language skills integratively, as is the case in real life
communication.
2.4. A taxonomy of oral proficiency
Brown and Abbeywickrama (2010: 184) have divided oral skills into five

involves none or very little interaction. The difference between this category and the
intensive one is the language complexity and sentence length.
Furthermore, Brown & Abbeywickrama (2010:185) also divide spoken
language into two other different categories, called micro skills and macro skills. In
this perspective micro skills cover the ability to control phonemes, stress patterns
and intonation contours. Macro skills on the other hand focus on the communicative
functions, styles, body language and other language strategies. Even if this
taxonomy is relatively extensive and complex the categories listed are by no means
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absolute. No test can only be isolated into one single category but usually covers all
of them with some being more focused than others.
2.5. Designing speaking task type assessment
2.5.1. Imitative speaking assessment
At the imitative level, it is probably already clear what the student is trying to
do. At this level, the student is simply trying to repeat what was said to them in a
way that is understandable and with some adherence to pronunciation as defined by
the teacher. It doesn‟t matter if the student comprehends what they are saying or
carrying on a conversation. The goal is only to reproduce what was said to them.
One common example of this is a “repeat after me” experience in the classroom. An
example of imitative speaking test is the Versant. It elicits computer-assisted oral
production over a telephone. Test-takers read aloud, repeat sentences, say words,
and answer questions.
Part A: read aloud selected sentences.
Examples: Traffic is a huge problem in Southern California.
Part B: repeat sentences dictated over the phone.
Example: Leave town on the next train.
Part C: Answer questions with a single word or a short phrase.
Example: Would you get water from a bottle or a newspaper?

1.5-2.4 some errors but intelligible.
2.5-3.0 occasional errors but always intelligible
Fluency
0.0-0.4 slow, hesitant, and unintelligible.
0.5-1.4 non-native pauses and flow that interferes with intelligibility.
1.5-2.4 non-native pauses but the flow is intelligible.
2.5-3.0 smooth and effortless.
Sentence/Dialogue Completion Task and Oral Questionnaires
First, test-takers are given time to read through the dialogue to get its gist (main
point), then the tape/teacher produces one part orally and the test-taker responds.
Example:
Salesperson: May I help you
Customer: ____________________ (test takers respond with appropriate lines)
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Advantage: more time to anticipate an answer, no potential ambiguity created by
aural misunderstanding (oral interview).
Disadvantage: It is inauthentic, except in situations such as parent reading to a child,
sharing a story with someone, giving a scripted oral presentation. It is not
communicative in real contexts.
Picture-cued task
A picture-cued stimulus requires a description from the test-taker. It may elicit a
word, a phrase, a story, or incident.
The types are:
 Picture-cued elicitation of minimal pairs
 Picture-cued elicitation of comparatives
 Picture-cued elicitation of future tense
 Picture-cued elicitation of nouns, negative responses, numbers, location
 Picture-cued elicitation of responses and description

 Test-takers respond with questions
Giving Instructions and Directions
The technique is simple: the administrator poses the problem, and the testtaker responds. Scoring is based primarily on comprehensibility and secondarily on
other specified grammatical or discourse categories.
Paraphrasing
The test-takers read or hear a limited number of sentences (perhaps two or
five) and produce a paraphrase of the sentence. The forms are:
Paraphrasing a story
Test-takers hear: Paraphrase the following little story in your own words.
My weekend in the mountains was fabulous. The first day we backpacked
into the mountains and climbed about 2.000 feet. The hike was strenuous but
exhilarating. By sunset we found these beautiful alpine lakes and made camp
there. The sunset was amazingly beautiful. The next two days we just kicked
back and did little day hikes, some rock climbing, bird watching, swimming,
and fishing. The hike out on the next day was really easy – all downhill – and
the scenery was incredible.
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Paraphrasing a phone message
Test-taker hear:
Please tell Jeff that I’m tied up in traffic so I’m going to be about a half late
for the nine o’clock meeting. And ask him to bring up our question about the
employee benefits plan. If he wants to check in with me on my cell phone,
have him call 415-338- 3095. Thanks.
2.5.4. Interactive Speaking Assessment
The unique feature of intensive speaking is that it is usually more
interpersonal than transactional. By interpersonal it is meant speaking for
maintaining relationships. Transactional speaking is for sharing information as is
common at the responsive level.