Research and Trends in the Studies of School-Based Oral English Assessment from 2003 to 2011: A Review of Selected Journals

Abstract

Assessing oral proficiency is a real challenge for English language practitioners.
Throughout the process of assessing, many features of oral competence are worth
given attention by teachers as the assessors. As such, the Malaysian Ministry of
Education has urged for another alternative for oral assessment in 2002 with the
intention of revamping and improvising the existing system. This new assessment
is none other than School-Based Oral English Assessment (SBOEA). Therefore, this
paper intends to review the studies done on the implementation of School-Based
Oral English Assessment (SBOEA). Among the 15 articles selected from 2003 to
2011, 7 of them focused on the Malaysian school context. The rest of articles
touched on School-Based Assessment in other contexts and speaking test as a
whole. Based on this review, it is now possible to postulate that most studies were
conducted to investigate respondents’ attitude and perception toward this type
of assessment. At this juncture, it is also obvious that mixed methods which
involve the use of both quantitative and qualitative study are the most preferred
method in the studies of School-Based Oral Assessment. Although the use of
questionnaire is fairly dominant in these journals articles, it is noted that other
instruments such as semi-structured interview, observation and document analysis
were also employed for data analysis. In addition, the insight and the data gained
from these studies could be beneficial for future reference in reviewing and
modifying the implementation of School-Based English Oral Assessment in
Malaysia. As such, the findings drawn from the studies can shed some light for
better implementation in Malaysia.