Challenges That Examiners Encounter When Assessing Speaking Skills at Yanbu English Language Institute and Preparatory Year Program (YELI-PYP)

The current paper aims to explore the challenges that assessors face when they conduct the speaking test at Yanbu English Language Institute and Preparatory Year Program (YELI-PYP). The study employed interviews to collect the data, with a sample consisting of 10 faculty members that varied between males and females, native and non-native speakers. The study revealed the following results: the examiners found that their students used incorrect grammar and an improper level of vocabulary during their speaking test, possessed a weak level of pronunciation, and demonstrated limited fluency. In addition, one of the biggest challenges that examiners encountered was the level of reluctance shown by their students during their exam, which they felt may have stemmed from a lack of vocabulary or as a result of psychological reasons, such as fear or anxiety. Moreover, it could have been due to the test instruments and/or the procedures of the exam that were applied by the examiners. For instance, many of the examiners felt that some of the test questions were significantly above the students' ability levels, which was due to the enrolment process. That is, the students were accepted onto the YELI-PYP directly from secondary school and were all placed in one level without any kind of placement test. The findings of this study also identified factors that negatively affected the performance of the students, such as the test time, learners' hesitation to ask the assessors questions if they did not understand something (or the questions were unclear), learners’ tendency to memorize the answers before the exam and the teachers’ personal and professional characteristics. Based on these findings, the researchers identified a number of recommendations and suggestions.