The Development Of Oral Competence Of EFL Students Through Formative Assessment

Oral competence assessment in EFT has always been a headache to teachers, and was often neglected in large-scale examinations. Language assessment is known to have a powerful influence on student learning. As there was a lack of effective assessing scheme, graduates often turn out poor in oral competence after years of studying English. With the development of society, technology and international trade, more and more emphasis is attached to student oral competence in EFT. Therefore, oral competence assessment is in an urgent need.There are mainly two kinds of assessment: summative and formative. Modern English highlights the instrumental value of language, and emphasizes the competence of using English. There has been much criticism of the validity of summative assessment. Summative assessment focuses on the learning outcomes; it is notorious for its backwash effect on student learning. On the contrary, formative assessment focuses on the process; it is on the purpose of promoting learning and an important part of the current curriculum reform. However, much of the discussion of formative assessment in our country still remains on the theoretical level. This paper documents a research on how to develop students' oral competence by using formative assessment. The study employs such research methods as experimental, inductive methods and case studies, etc.To enhance students' oral competence, teachers should integrate assessment with teaching and learning, and carry out the assessment in more authentic context; use a wider range of oral assessment tasks which focus on language meaning, such as performance based assessment and portfolios; use a variety of methods to collect and interpret a wide range of assessment information, as not a single method of assessment would be sufficient to provide information needed.It is hoped that this paper will aid other teachers and pre-service teachers to understand what formative assessment is and to further develop their skills and knowledge of how to develop students' oral competence by employing formative assessment. However, the discussion in this paper is not definitive and absolute, but is only a paradigm. The author tries to encourage educators to adapt these methods and procedures to best suit their specific needs.