Differences and challenges involved in the assessment of speaking skill: The case of three universities in Ankara

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: ANNA LOZOVSKA GÜNEŞ

Danışman: NURDAN GÜRBÜZ

Özet:

It is a well-known fact among the foreign language teachers that the assessment of speaking is one of the most challenging tasks in the teaching methodology. The reason for that is the lack of proper concepts of the notion ‘good speaking skills’ and the assessment tasks that would evaluate the learner’s ability to communicate efficiently in the real context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers’ and learners’ perceptions and challenges they face when dealing with speaking skills. Data were gathered via four stages – open-ended and Likert scale questionnaires and two semi-structured interviews that were offered to the academics and the students of Middle East Technical University, Hacettepe University and Gazi University. Another aim is to develop a speaking rubric which would generalize the criteria academics and their students consider to be the most important while evaluating oral performance. Both qualitative and quantitative data was analyzed. The Microsoft Excel program was used for analyzing learners’ perceptions about the assessment of speaking in the form of the questionnaire, while content analysis was used in order to analyze the data elicited from the teachers and students through open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview.