Oral assessment applied to a literature course for English language teaching students
Oral assessment applied to a literature course for English language teaching students
This study refers to some positive and negative effects of oral assessment applied to a literature course. The experiment was conducted in a north Cyprus university English language teaching (ELT) department, during the spring semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. The data were collected from the ELT students taking the Survey to English Literature course (SELC) during the spring semester of the 2016-2017 academic year, who were asked to fill in an open ended questionnaire about the intervention, and semi structured interviews conducted with the co-examiners. In the ELT department under discussion, almost all the exams are written, and the students do not have too many opportunities to speak during the courses or during their mid-term exam. The results show the benefits and drawbacks of implementing oral examinations to assess students’ literature knowledge. Oral assessment applied to a literature course for English language teaching students
Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) students to teach EFL is a double folded endeavor. On the one hand it aims at improving students’ level of English; on the other hand it seeks to prepare them to use modern, appropriate methods and techniques to teach it. The syllabus used by the ELT department under discussion includes a SELC, which is taught for two semesters during the second year of studies. The assessment of the course had only been done through a written format before the implementation of this intervention. The present study followed the case study procedure. Twenty students and two coexaminers were the participants in the study. The students were exposed to an intervention for six weeks, which included an oral exam assessed by two co-examiners and the researcher. Further on, the students were asked to fill in an open-ended questionnaire in which their opinions were required. The co-examiners took part in a semi-structured interview about their opinions concerning the oral exam. The data obtained was qualitatively interpreted and the results showed the effects of the intervention.