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Abstract
Evaluation in second language (SL) teaching is of fundamental significance to all-inclusive praxis of language teaching and its reconsideration in the setting of Pakistan may direct to an improved and better teaching and learning process. In this post-industrial era, assessment system which is founded on well-defined and objective lines will not only be useful in reflecting the spoken competency of students in a precise and consistent manner, but also helps them get lucrative jobs in the market. The research was conducted to find out the ways and means utilized to evaluate the spoken language proficiency of students at the National University of Modern Languages. For this purpose, a semi-structured questionnaire was developed and pilot-tested, and its validity and reliability was confirmed before administration. The data were also collected through an observation sheet to find out how exactly the teachers evaluated the students of undergraduate studies. The researcher used the model of communicative language testing for the development and analysis of the questionnaire and the observation sheet. The data display that there are many loopholes such as indirect, subjective and invalid way of assessing the spoken language proficiency in the evaluative system of the university, and thereby suggestions for the improvement have also been made.
Keywords: evaluation, spoken language proficiency, criteria.
Introduction
Evaluation plays a pivotal role in SL teaching/leaming process. SL curriculum designing, which begins with needs analysis and leads to aims and objectives, then material development and then teaching methodology, ends with evaluation. They are, in fact, on the two ends of the same continuum. The role of evaluation in SL can be selective, for it evokes a true picture of learners, explicating whether they have mastered what they were required to master as stated in the learning objectives; another role can be diagnostic, for it helps identify the problems and weaknesses of SL learners and provides data to teachers to find ways to overcome them; moreover, its role can be predictive with particular reference to continuation of learners' scholarship and future study-career, giving meaning to all that goes by the name of SL teaching and learning (Douglas, 2014).
Evaluation is usually carried out in order to improve SL teaching/learning process and to test learners' proficiency (McNamara, 2000). As human language is...