Understanding and Assessing L2 Speaking by Dr Victoria Clark

Speaking is an essential element in communicative competence. However, there is a lack of teacher training in the teaching and assessment of L2 spoken language skills. In this webinar, I wish to focus on the assessment of speaking. I will first start with explaining the differences between L1 and L2 speaking. Then I will introduce what we mean by ‘speaking’ in communicative competence – in other words, the skills/competences that are involved other than just knowledge of language elements. I will show real examples of spoken grammar and other features of speech and discuss a theoretical model to explain how speech is produced. Finally, I will focus on tasks that are used to assess (and teach) speaking – with examples of tasks that assess teenagers. More about teacher development: https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/teach