Testing one's "speaking"

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by albeit

Maybe you're seeing something I'm not, Raymott, but I think that if an ESL can't comprehend speech, especially at native speaker speed, then the responses, though fully grammatical and with good pronunciation, might just be so far off kilter that it's disarming to those he speaks to.

That's true. Do you mean an ESL learner? This learner is not complaining about his comprehension. I think you are missing something - the "If".
If I could understand others, and they couldn't understand me, I'd get my speech tested. Naturally, if I couldn't comprehend speech, then we'd be talking about something else.
In any case, perhaps we will hear the next installment next week, and then we can dispense with the conditional.

[Catherine C.]

Hi all...I promised to report back on how things went with my student...happy to say he came yesterday and imho we both had a rewarding time...at the beginning of the lesson, I was very specific with him about what exactly he wanted in terms of having his "speaking" tested...I asked him how he had had his speech tested in the past and he told me that his teacher usually did an "interview" exercise with him (Tdol---you were spot on! :o) )...as it turned out, I had an interview prepared for him...I gave him the following exercises during the lesson:

**a reading to test his pronunciation (he read it and was recorded....I then played it back and corrected it with him)

**a strip story that he had to talk about (recorded again and corrected with him immediately afterward)

**with his agreement, a 100 mark listening test (from the TOEIC)...this took a lot of time...too much time and if I had to do it again I would have shortened it...

***the interview

No time to do any more...but I got the impression that this is exactly what he was looking for...so I am pleased...

Thanks again to all of you for your suggestions...they were very helpful. I've printed them off for "next time"! :o)

Catherine C.

PS I had the feeling that standardized testing wasn't new to him...he's a mechanical engineering student in his home country and has taken the TOEIC several times as it is mandatory for students at his university.