ASSESSING THE PRACTICES OF ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES OF SPEAKING SKILLS: THE CASE OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT BETELIHEM SECONDARY SCHOOL

ABSTRACT: This study was designed to investigate the practices of assessment activities of speaking skills. Accordingly, examining necessary resources teachers use to assess students’ speaking skills, identifying the methods teachers apply in the class to assess their students speaking skill, finding out the perception and extent of teachers and students to practice assessment speaking skill, and finding out the challenges teachers face while assess students’ speaking skill were carried out. Descriptive survey was the research method employed to achieve the research goal. Mixed approaches (quantitative and qualitative) data collection methods were applied. For the purpose of the study, 13 EFL teachers by comprehensive sampling and 240 randomly selected students of Betelhem secondary school in Addis Ababa city was taken as the research participants of the study. The data collected from questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. According to the findings, although English language teachers have positive attitude towards the assessment of speaking skill, there are a number of problems that challenge them to practice it. Of the expected factors, the findings of the study indicated that more than one factor working together. In line with this, factors related to large classroom that is difficult to assess the students’ speaking skills was significant factor. Besides, not having clear criteria how the students speaking can be measured was taken as a significant factor. Oral assessment procedure particularly students who do not have suitable linguistic background was also a significant factor. Finally, some useful implications were proposed based on the research findings.