Speaking Test Design for Students
2.1 Test takers
The test takers for this test are students. They are generally young adults who have travelled from outside of Australia to study. They are living and attending a private language school to improve their level of English to be sufficient to attend an Australian university. They speak English as a second or other language. Their first languages vary, for example, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Indonesian, Vietnamese and Tagalog. The students in the test cohort have all studied English for at least eight years, in Australia and in their home countries. The goal of these students is to achieve a rating of 6 on the IELTS exam that will allow them university entrance. The current level of proficiency of the students is equivalent to a rating of 5 or 6 of the IELTS. This means that this cohort is nearing the end of their studies with the language school.
BASED ON THE INFORMATION ABOUT TEST TAKERS, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO DO THE FOLLOWING:
- Introduction for the test.
- Context
- Content Rationale (test content+test administration), refer to pp. 149-155 (Bachman & Palmer, 1996) (practicability,reliability, validity, authenticity, washback)
- Pilot Testing (2 pages)
- Test items
- Guidelines for test users
- Test specification:
Purpose (general): academic preparation; achievement test
Constructs of the test.
Content Specification (L/R/W/S):
Task Description(L/R/W/S):
- Additional test materials (administration, assessment, task card for speaking test, marking sheet, criteria)
- Apply the IELTS rubric for the speaking test taking into account that you need to change a little bit on it to meet the requiremnts.
I will attach the chapter from which we are required to design a speaking test. The first questions to be asked are general questions as in the ielts, and then you move to ask about the hypothetical situations, which is the main focus of the chapter attached, such as using could have and would have.