Abstract

The grammar course objectives at Brigham Young University's English Language Center (ELC) are a list of grammar structures for each level that students are expected to be able to master. These objectives currently are only measured by pencil-paper grammar tests, providing information regarding receptive grammar ability only. Therefore, there is a need for an oral grammar assessment to measure productive grammar ability, providing diagnostic and achievement information about the specific grammar objectives. This project is a web-based oral grammar assessment tool that enables teachers to assess students' mastery of the structures covered in the ELC grammar classes. The core of the project is an online database of speaking tasks designed to target specific grammar structures. Teachers can access the database through a website and create assessments using groups of selected speaking tasks. Then, students access the speaking tasks through a separate recording application that has been developed to display the prompts and record students' responses. Teachers can access the recorded responses on the website and rate the responses, using a rubric to measure students' mastery of each grammar structure. An evaluation of the project reveals that students and teachers feel that it is beneficial in providing practice and self-assessment opportunities. Most students like using the program and consider it helpful. However, a major challenge is the time required of teachers to listen to students' responses in order to use the program for actual assessment and give effective feedback. As the program is used more widely, future research needs to investigate the reliability and validity of the tasks and using the rubric for assessment.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Linguistics and English Language

Rights

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