KOTESOL National Conference 2018
Presentation (45 minutes)
Gunter Breaux, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
MS Word can measure speaking ability. Here’s how.
Abstract
The original goal of English education was conversation ability. Then, grammar became the goal because it’s easy to test. After grammar became the goal, it became the best route to that goal. But it’s the wrong goal. Conversation can be the goal again, because now conversation is now easy to test. This fundamentally changes how foreign languages can be taught.
This presentation describes a test that is easy to give and grade. It both measures and improves speaking ability. Each student gets extensive personal feedback, and teachers get accurate grading and improvement data. And students do all the work. In brief: three students of similar ability have a 17-minute conversation. The test is recorded on students’ phones. Students transcribe only what they said on MS Word, which takes about 90 minutes. Word gives their total words spoken and how many times they spoke. Simple division gives their average-words-per-utterance.
Total words measures their ability and average-words measures their improvement. For first-time and beginning speakers (most Asian students) this test is as accurate as a typing test. Beginning typists hunt and peck for keys, and beginning speakers do likewise for the correct word and correct word order. Both are hunting and pecking as fast as they can, and Word precisely measures that. What about mistakes? It’s not a mistake test, it’s a communicative test. And MS Word easily and objectively measures how much they communicated. This changes everything.
Biographicals
Gunther Breaux has taught English conversation to Korean university freshmen for 22 years. He’s an associate professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and the author of several EFL textbooks. He has presented at international conferences in China, Korea, Japan and the U.S. ConversationBasedLearning.com. Email: plangbro@gmail.com
See the list of Presentations at the KOTESOL 2018 National Conference
