Tamil Speaking Proficiency and The Importance of Speaking Assessment among Tamil Language Trainee Teachers

Speaking skills are an important part of the curriculum in language teaching and this makes them an important object of assessment as well. Tamil language trainee teachers have problems delivering the lessons to students effectively due to poor speaking skills. Thus, this research is conducted to highlight speaking proficiency levels and explain the importance of speaking assessment among Tamil Language trainee teachers in Malaysia. Martin Bygate’s Theory on speaking was used in this study. Simple random sampling was carried out involving 12 trainee teachers who are studying the Tamil Language as a major at one of the local public universities in Malaysia. The study incorporated mixed methods. Theimplication of this study indicates that implementing speaking assessments among Tamil Language Trainee teachers at universities can increase their Tamil speaking proficiency.