Test Of Spoken English

TSE is a 20-minute audiotaped test of oral language ability within an academic or professional environment. TSE scores are used by many North American institutions of higher Education to select international teaching assistant or for selecting and certifying health professionals such as physicians, nurses, pharmacist, physical therapist, and veterinarians. The task on TSE are designed to elicit oral production in various discourse categories rather than in selected phonological, grammatical, or lexical targets. The content specification of the TSE represent the discourse and pragmatic contexts assessed in each administrator: 1. Describing something physical 2. Narrate from presented material 3. Summarize information of the speakers own choice 4. Give directions based on visual material 5. Give instructions 6. Give an opinion 7. Support an opinion 8. Compare or contrast 9. Hypothesize 10. Function interactively 11. Define By using these specification, Lazaraton and Wagner (1996) examined 15 different specific tasks in collecting background data from native and non-native speakers of English 1. Giving the personal description 2. Describing the daily routine 3. Suggesting a gift and supporting ones choice 4. Recommending a place to visit and supporting ones choice 5. Giving directions 6. Describing a favorite movie and supporting ones choice 7. Telling a story from picture 8. Hypothesizing about future actions 9. Hypothesizing about a preventative action 10. Making a telephone call to the dry cleaner 11. Describing an important event 12. Giving an opinion about an animal in the zoo 13. Defining a technical term 14. Describing information in a graph and speculating about its implications 15. Giving details about a trip schedule

The following is a set of sample items as they appears in the TSE manual: Part A Test takers see: a map of town

Test taker hear: imagine that we are colleagues. The map below is of a neighboring town that you have suggested I visit. You will have 30 seconds to study the map, and I will ask you some question about it. 1. Chose one place on the map that you think I should visit and give me some reason why you recommended this place. (30second) 2. Id like to see a movie. Please give me directions from the bus station to the movie theatre(30 second) 3. One of your favorite movies is playing at the theatre. Tell me about the movie and why you like it.(60 second) Part B .. Part C .. The original version of TSE (1987) specified three contributing factors to a final score on overall comprehensibility : pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. The current scoring scale 20 to 60 listed above incorporates task performance, function, appropriateness, and coherence as well as the form-focused factors. The summarize of information on the TSE are: Test of Spoken English (TSE) Producer Objective : Educational testing service, Princeton, NJ : to test oral production skills of non native English speakers

Primary market: primarily used for screening international teaching assistants in universities in the united states, to certifying health professionals in united states. type : audiotaped with written graphic, and spoken stimuli

response modes: Oral task; connected discourse specifications : (see sample items above) time allocations : 20 minutes web : http//www.toefl.org/tse/tseindx.html

Designing Assessment Task: Interactive Speaking The two categories of oral assessment(interactive and extensive speaking) include task that involve relatively long stretches of interactive discourse (interview, role plays, discussion, games) and task of equally long duration but that involve less interaction (speech, telling longer stories, and extended explanation and translation). Interview The interview, which may be tape recorded for re-listening, is then scored on one or more parameters such as accuracy, in pronunciation and/ or grammar, vocabulary usage, fluency, sociolinguistic/pragmatic appropriateness, task accomplishment, and even comprehension. Interview can very length from perhaps five to forty-fife minutes, depending on their purpose and context. Placement interview, designed to get a quick spoken sample from a student in order to verify placement into course, may need only five minutes if the interviewers is trained to evaluate the output accurately longer comprehensive interviews. Michaels Canale (1984) proposed a framework for oral proficiency testing that has withstood the rest of time. He suggested that test taker will perform in their best if they are led though four stages: 1. Warm up. In preliminary small talk, the interviewers direct mutual introductions, help the test taker become comfortable with the situation, apprises and test taker of the format, and allays anxieties. 2. Level check The interviewers stimulates the test taker to respond using expected or predicated form and function. If , for example, from previous test information, grades, or other data, the test takers has been judged to be a levels 2 speaker, the interviewers, prompt will attempt to confirm this assumption. The responses may takes very simple or very complex form, depending on the entry levels of the learners. 3. Probe Question and prompt challenge test-takers to go to the heights of their ability, to extend beyond the limited of the interviewers expectation through increasingly difficult

questions. Probe question may be complex in their framing and or complex in their cognitive and linguistic demand. 4. Wind-down This final phrase of the interview is simply a short period of the time during which the interviewers encourages the test taker to relax with some easy question, sets the test takers mind at ease, and provide information about when and where to obtain the results of the interview. Oral interview specification Warm up 1. Small talk Level check The test taker 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Probe The test taker 7. Responds to interviewers question about something the test taker doest know and is planning to include in an article or paper 8. Talks about his or her own field of study or professional 9. Engages in a longer, more o[pen ended role play 10. Gives an impromptu presentation on some aspect of test takers field Wind down 11. Feeling about the interview, information on result, further question. The success of oral interview will depend on Clearly specifying administrative procedures of assessment( practicality) Focusing the question and probes on the purpose of the assessment( validity) Appropriately eliciting on optimal amount and quality of the oral production from the test taker (biased for the best performance Creating a consistence, workable, scoring systems (reliability) Answer wh- question Produces a narrative without interruption Read a passage aloud Tells how to make something or do something Engages in a brief, controlled, guided role play

Role play Role play is a popular pedagogic activity in communicative language teaching classes. Within constraints set forth by the guidelines, it frees student to be some rehearsal time to so that students can map out what they are going to say and it has the effect of lowering anxieties as students can, even for a view moments to take on the personal of someone other than themselves . as an assessment device role play opens some windows of opportunity for test taker to use this course that might otherwise be difficult to elicit.

Discussions and conversation As a formal assessment device, discussion and assessment devices, discussion and conversation with an amount students are difficult to specify and even more difficult to score. But as informal techniques to asses learners, they over a levels of authenticity and spontaneity that order assessment techniques may not provide. Discussion maybe especially appropriate tasks through which to elicit and observe such abilities as Topic nomination, maintenance, and termination attention getting interrupting, floor holding, control; comprehension signals negotiating meaning intonation pattern for pragmatic effect kinesics eye contact, proxemics, body language and politeness, formality, and sociolinguistic factor

assessing the performance of participant through scores and checklist should be carefully designed to sweet the objectives of the observed discussion.