Can an Oral Test Change Teachers’ and Students’ Strategies and Materials?

Abstract

This paper aims to provide EFL teachers in the Algerian secondary schools practical insights to overcome the array of anomalies present in their teaching and assessment practices that resulted in negative effects on their outcomes. In order to achieve this objective, an oral test was incorporated in the developed achievement tests. The oral test was put into practice on a selected sample that consisted of eight EFL teachers and classes in the Biskra region. In the investigation, a qualitative study was carried out, employing observation as a data collection method. The number of sessions observed was estimated to 55 during one school year. In order to minimize the differences in observation and make teaching comparable, only four observed classes were used in this study. To collect and analyse data, the researcher opted for the Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT). Procedures for data analysis consisted in global viewing of the lessons, general coding of all the observed lessons, sorting and putting the interaction patterns into the observation schedule, and providing detailed description of the organization structures. In terms of the analysis of findings, this study had revealed that the incorporated, oral test had had interesting effects on teachers' teaching strategies and materials. 1. Study Background In this study, an analysis of the Algerian teachers' and students' practices in EFL classes generated a number of interesting findings in relation to classroom assessment, and its effects on relevant learning strategies and materials. Specifically, teachers' claims are in agreement with the negative views expressed by students. That is, the testing instruments used to assess their attainment and progress in English language have a constraining and distorting influence on the content and methodology of teaching this foreign language, as well as on its learning. The majority of the Algerian teachers believe that the current used assessment tools influenced the content of their teaching and classroom assessment. This means that those adopting these testing tools paid more attention to grammar and vocabulary. And, they also focused only on some written sub-skills, neglecting totally to teach and assess the oral skill throughout the school year. This practice would have encouraged teachers to use non-communicative methodology in ordinary classes, which markedly contrasts with the underlying principles of the adopted teaching methodology that prelude communicative teaching.