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Unit Two: How to diagnose and constructively evaluate ESL students’ speeches?

From KNILT

Learning Objectives

Before ESL students’ public speaking presentations, participants will be able to systematically provide diagnostic testing for any ESL learners within Public Speaking class.

After ESL students’ public speaking presentations, participants will be able to systematically provide evaluation for any ESL learners within Public Speaking class.

Introduction

Let’s start this week’s study by reflecting on those two frustrations that Public Speaking instructors have:

One thing that Public Speaking instructors usually consider as a headache is how to provide diagnostic help to truly guide ESL speakers during their preparation process. I am sure you all have come across a situation that though you observe the pronunciation problems in ESL students’ speeches, you don’t know where to start to systematically guide them and correct them. The first half of this mini-course is to provide you with some skills in diagnosing ESL speakers especially on a one-by-one basis. With an understanding of where to possibly start, you won’t be frustrated next time when you need to provide diagnosis to an ESL students’ speech.

Another headache to Public Speaking instructors is how to evaluate and grade ESL students’ speeches. I am sure you have experienced a situation that you were wondering if you should be lenient to grade ESL speakers when comparing mainstream speakers with them as ESL speakers have extra pronunciation and word choice problems. In the next half of the unit, we will help each other set up a standard in evaluating and grading ESL students.

Mini-Lecture

Part I: Diagnosing Steps for Pronunciation:

  • Step One: Identify the major mispronunciations of each ESL student in the class.

This may be done through diagnostic testing. Have students record initial speech samples on individual tapes and establish goals for improvement with each student. As the term progresses monitor the student’s progress. The diagnostic should be kept until the end of the term so that progress can be measured by the instructor and observed by the student. Diagnostic testing enables instructors to personalize their instruction with each ESLstudent.

In analyzing the sample, the instructor should write down the student’s strengths and weaknesses, problems they have with specific sounds, and problems with rate, volume, intonation, stress, and rhythm. This diagnosis should be kept throughout the term to update and monitor student progress.

  • Step Two: Setting goals

When diagnostic testing is completed, the instructor should schedule conferences with each student to identify problems and set goals for improvement. Instructors should find out what the students believe needs immediate improvement and work on these problems first. In selecting which problems to monitor and correct, instructors should consider whether the problem impedes communication, is recurring or isolated, affects the student’s ethos, or can easily be corrected. In the diagnostic conference, the instructor should play the tape, stopping after each sentence, and ask the student to identify errors. If the student doesn’t hear an important error, the instructor should point it out. The instructor and student should target specific pronunciation problems and not try to correct everything at once. Periodic monitoring and resetting of goals should be done by the student and the instructor throughout the term.

  • Step Three: Targeting Problems

The most common method used by instructors to address the pronunciation errors of ESL students is to target six to eight problem sounds. In selecting the sounds to target, the instructor should consider the frequency of occurrence of the problem sound in spoken English. For example, t is a frequently used English consonant and should be targeted if the student has difficulty with its pronunciation. The instructor with limited time will find that it is better to focus on the articulation of consonants than vowels. Consonants are easier to correct and are where the greatest problems with intelligibility occur. Most ESL students will experience some level of interference with the following consonants: voiced th, unvoiced th, r, ch, soft g, p, t, d, and k.


Investigation 1: Record a speech sample of your mainstream and ESL students before they give their first formal speech. You can set up one-minute impromptu speeches for each individuals. After recording, set up a meeting with those ESL students who you think have problems with pronunciations and word choice when giving speeches. Please follow the three steps introduced in the mini-course to provide diagnosis to the ESL students. While doing so, don’t forget to take notes and finish the worksheet below. At the end of this week, please select out one worksheet that you have done to help one of your ESL students and share it on the Discussion Forum here so that we can share ideas with each other. Worksheet: File:Worksheet for activity 1.pdf


Part II: Grading ESL Students:

Please read the article shared below to brainstorm the aspects you would like to consider when building a rubric to grade ESL students. Whiling reading, thinking about if the aspects mentioned in the article is applicable to your teaching situation and why.

http://busyteacher.org/4836-how-to-evaluate-speaking.html


Investigation 2: After reading the article above, I am sure now you have some ideas about what to pay special attention to in evaluating ESL speakers. Here are links to three ESL students' presentations:



Student 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLhVtDgtFD0

Student 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cwXjZ3VEjg

Student 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7A6QKdcXTI&list=PL5D3906BFAF7E6754&index=3


For this investigative task, please watch those three speeches from ESL students and choose one aspect among Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Accuracy, Communication, Interaction, and Fluency, mentioned in the article, and develop the rubrics you would like to use to grade your those speakers on that certain aspect.

Learning Activities: Discussion & Evaluation

Part 1:

Please upload your worksheet that you have done in Investigation 1, in together with one question that you have during your investigating process, onto the Discussion Forum before Friday night of this week. Please comment on at least two participants’ worksheet and try to answer the questions they put forward by Sunday night.

Part 2:

Another even more important task that we need to do this weekend is to build up a resource that we can all consult to when building rubrics used to grade ESL students. In order to do so, please post your result of Investigation 2 under the right categories, among Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Accuracy, Communication, Interaction, and Fluency before Sunday at 3 pm.

From 3 pm till the midnight on Sunday, please vote for TWO rubrics written by the participants under each category. I will choose the top ten rubrics under each category and share the file with you as the resource you can use for future teaching purpose.

Google sheets link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l1NoFuckpPTloLrxKpCIqky4YGrGkTqntcFhFl_FEH0/edit?usp=sharing

Conclusion

After reading this week’s mini-course and doing this week’s activities, I am sure you have a better understanding of how to provide diagnosis for your ESL students in your Public Speaking class during the preparation process. I hope your knowledge on diagnose ESL students’ Pronunciation can also be applicable when you diagnose other aspects, such as word choice, speech outlining, etc. in future. I also hope our collaborative work on the rubrics is going to be helpful for the course you are teaching now or for the courses you are going to teach soon.

For our last unit, we will monitor the Public Speaking class as a whole. Specifically, we will focus on designing proper class activities to facilitate both mainstream and ESL students. Please come back one week later when your students have finished the first round of speech. See you soon!

Click here to go to Unit Three: How to design class activities for Public Speaking course to facilitate both mainstream and ESL students?

Click here to return to Unit One: Who are ESL students?

Click here to return to Shirley's Portfolio Page.

Click here to return to the Shirley's Mini-Course Units.

References

ESL Teaching guide for public speaking. Retrieved from: http://college.cengage.com/communication/resources/shared/downloads/esl_guide.pdf


Verner, S. (n.d.). How to evaluate Speaking. Retrieved from: http://busyteacher.org/4836-how-to-evaluate-speaking.html


Public Speaking Class-ESL. (2014). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLhVtDgtFD0


ESL Speech. (2015) Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cwXjZ3VEjg


KKFYG The standard Chartered Hong Kong English Public Speaking Contest 2009. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7A6QKdcXTI&list=PL5D3906BFAF7E6754&index=3

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