Fulcher Glenn. Testing Second Language Speaking

Routledge, 2014. — 311 p.Testing second language speaking has become extremely important since the Second World War. When it was real often ill equipped to communicate, that their inability to speak in a second language might be 'a serious handicap to safety and comfort', the push for tests of second language speaking began in earnest. From the needs of the military, the practice soon spread to colleges and universities. Today, speaking tests are available from all major test producers, for a multitude of purposes.
This book offers a comprehensive treatment of testing speaking in a second language. It will be useful for anyone who has to develop speaking tests in their own institutions, which is becoming an increasingly common requirement placed upon teachers who may have no training in test development. For teachers this book contains a generic programmatic approach from design to implementation that can be adapted to local conditions. Teachers are also asked to evaluate tests for use by their institutions when there is a need to use speaking tests produced by agencies like Educational Testing Service or the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The book provides clear guidance about the kinds of questions teachers may ask, and how to evaluate the answers. But it is never prescriptive.
The book is also intended for students of Applied Linguistics, languages and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). It brings together in one volume a summary and critical analysis of research into testing second language speaking. There is a wealth of examples, not only of task types that are commonly used in speaking tests, but of approaches to researching speaking tests, and specific methodologies, that students may have to use in their own projects. The approaches and methodologies are presented with examples from the literature, and are carefully referenced for follow-up study.