Engaging assessment and the speaking skill

Abstract

The main objective of the current research was to determine the effectiveness of engaging assessment in improving students' speaking ability. Given that today in this fast and changing world, students need to have better assessment in learning a second language, in this case Second year students from BGU at “Mario Cobo Barona High School”, due to the fact that their capacity of being fluent and speaking correctly in English has been affected by the absence of engaging assessment activities. Therefore, this way of assessment was considered for students to speak English better and being understandable to encounter real life scenarios in their present and future lifetime. Taking this context, experimentation with 40 students was proposed as a single group for the pre and posttest. Then, the development of speaking skill in students was evaluated using the SPSS program in which the T test was applied. Based on the pretest result some engaging assessment activities (reversed jeopardy, group charades, the classroom movie, rhyme time, pass the ball, presenting a story) were applied in 2 weeks. At the end of the application, the posttest was applied having as a result significant improvement in students’ speaking skill, showing that the implementation of these activities, really helps students in the acquisition of English as a second language; especially at the moment to interact with others (students-students) or (teacher-students), noting a greater freedom and confidence at the moment of speaking. Concluding that what students really need are tools and support to assess and improve their own learning and motivation when learning a second language.