Evaluating Speaking Speaking is a complex act wi

Evaluating Speaking
    Good morning, everyone. Today, we’ll look at what a speaker needs to be able to do in order to use spoken English as an effective form of communication. Perhaps you would think that it is ok to read and listen a lot. No, you may be wrong. Speaking is a complex act with many different elements interacting to produce effective communication. For example, speakers need to pronounce individual sounds clearly, understand the functions of language, and follow the conventions of turn-taking. In order to evaluate this skill accurately, we need to i-dentify and isolate each of these elements. We can then develop frameworks to evaluate them. Below are five aspects that speakers need to be able to do in order to communicate effectively, including: phonological features of speech: following the rules of language: paralinguistic devices: communicative functions: social meaning.
    Now, first of all, I will introduce to you phonological features of speech. Speakers need to be able to produce the phonological features of speech well enough to be understood, and understand them when they hear them. These features include: first,(1)individual sounds—consonants, vowels, diphthongs such as in day and triphthongs such as in here. Second, the stressed and weak sounds in words: for example, the second syllable of "banana" is stressed and the first and third are weak. Third, the stressed and weak words in speech: for example, in the order "Go to bed!" "go" and "bed" are stressed and "to" is not. Fourth,(2)the rhythm of speech in general. English is stress-timed, meaning that in general stressed syllables have an equal amount of time between them. Fifth,(3)the intonation patterns in speech, falling, rising, flat, etc. Sixth, the features of connected speech, i.e. things that happen when we connect sounds together: for example, connected speech produces contractions such as "doesn’t", linking sounds such as the /j/ in "I am", lost sounds such as the /t/ in "I don’t know", and changed sounds such as the /t/ in "white bag" changing to a /p/.
    OK, in addition to phonological features of speech, speakers need to be able to understand and follow the rules of language at a word, sentence and text level. This includes three rules of language: the first rule is choosing the right vocabulary. Speakers need to think about the meaning of a word, its connotations, the level of formality, the type of register and genre, and the words it normally goes with(collocations). The second rule is using grammar structures to put clauses and sentences together.(4)The third rule is using features of discourse to give long and short turns cohesion and coherence. For example, speakers need to use referencing "this is the problem..." and connectors "so...".
     (5)The third aspect is paralinguistic devices. Speakers understand and use paralinguistic devices as a communicative tool. There are different definitions of paralanguage, but if we say that it does not involve words in any way then this includes:(6)non-verbal tools such as gestures and facial expressions: other body language, such as eye contact, posture, positioning and movement of the head:(7)verbal tools such as changes in volume, e.g. whispering and shouting, and noises such as "whew!" and "tsk!"     What’s more, speakers still need to be able to recognize, understand and use the communicative functions of speech. Next, I would like to talk about the communicative functions of speech. First, understanding the communicative functions of vocabulary and grammar. OK, let’s look at examples. Why is this a normal exchange: A: "Did you walk the dog today?" B: "I’ve been in bed all day with a cold. " Or what a speaker means when he says: "Do you know who I am?" Second, understanding the functions of intonation and moving stress. For example, intonation and stress can show attitude: "Oh, really?" Emphasis: "I said three bananas", and structure, e. g. a falling intonation at the end of a list of items. Third, recognizing features such as repetitions, re-phrasing, pauses, and noises and understanding their function. Fourth,(8)recognizing non-linguistic features such as changes in volume and tone.
    Finally, speakers need to consider six factors about social meaning of speech.(9)The first factor is when to use formal and informal languages. The second factor is what connotation the language might have, for example, the difference between thin, slender and skinny. The third factor is how direct they can be, for example, when to say "Help me with this." and when to say "Would you mind helping me, please?" The fourth factor is what social factors are important, e.g. social status, age, gender.(10)The fifth factor is conversational principals such as turn taking and exchanges—these can be different in different cultures and societies. The last factor is the rules to start, maintain, manage, and close conversations.
    OK, in today’s lecture, I have tried to describe five aspects that speakers need to be able to do in order to communicate effectively. We know that communicative success depends on the speaker’s ability to use them. Therefore, evaluation of a learner’s spoken English must involve looking at these different tools. In the next lecture, I will think about which of these factors we can include in our evaluation and which we can’t, and then review some formal speaking tests and how they approach this challenge. We will look at how these competencies can be evaluated, with specific discussion of formal methods such as the IELT and Cambridge Main Suite speaking tests.