Approaches and Challenges to Assessing Oral Communication on Japanese Entrance Exams

Abstract

The Japanese university entrance exam does not include an oral communication section, and as a result, teachers are often conflicted as to whether they should spend class time on oral communication activities as is mandated by the national curriculum, or time focusing on preparing their students for the entrance exams. In addition, it is unlikely that universities are able to accurately select students with the strongest English abilities when they are not given information about students' abilities to orally communicate. It would seem obvious that to solve this problem, an oral communication section could simply be included on the exam. However, valid oral communication assessments are immensely challenging to implement in large-scale high stakes contexts. This paper discusses some of the possible approaches that have been used to assess oral communication in large-scale high stakes contexts and their appropriateness for the Japanese entrance exam. It also explores some of the current areas of research that might help to alleviate some of the challenges of including an oral communication section on the Japanese entrance exam. It focuses on three approaches currently used: computer-delivered and computer-scored, computer-delivered and human-scored, and human-delivered and human-scored. Keywords: entrance exams, oral assessment For decades, there has been tension between Japanese classrooms, where oral communication is seen as important, and the Japanese national university entrance exam, which has not directly assessed oral communication. One result has been that teachers have been forced to make the difficult decision of choosing whether they should spend class time preparing students for the university entrance exam, or following the mandated curriculum which emphasizes helping students develop oral communication skills. Given the aims of English education in Japan, the importance of including an oral communication section on the university entrance exam appears obvious. However, numerous challenges have made its inclusion difficult. This paper discusses some of the approaches that could be taken to achieve this purpose. It begins with a discussion of the aims of a university exam and describes a framework that could be used to guide the development of an-3