An Investigation Into Students' And Teachers' Need And Preferences For Diagnostic Speaking Tests At College Level In China

Diagnostic assessment aims to find out learners' strengths and weaknesses and provide detailed feedback and instructions so as to help students improve their language abilities.With the development of language assessment and assessment for learning,more and more linguists pay attention to diagnostic language assessment(DLA).Theories and research on diagnostic assessment are still at the developmental stage and existing diagnostic assessment or tests are also confined in listening,reading and writing diagnosis.There have rarely been any diagnostic speaking tests(DST).Nevertheless,English speaking ability has always been a hard nut for most Chinese students.Based on such background,it is significant to study and develop diagnostic speaking tests.To develop a scientific test,an investigation of the need and preferences for this test from both the learners' and the teachers' perspectives is a prerequisite.This study aims to investigate college students' and teachers' need and preferences for developing diagnostic speaking tests and differences in need and preferences between students and teachers with different background.The following are the specific questions of the present study:1)What is the state of current speaking tests in universities?2)Do college students and teachers need a diagnostic speaking test?3)What are the students' and teachers' preferences for diagnostic content,mode,diagnostician,feedback content,provider and receiver,timing and mode?4)Are there any differences in preferences in terms of different background of students and teachers?The study adopted the instruments of questionnaire and interview.The questionnaire was designed by the author according to theories on diagnostic assessment and communicative competence.In addition,interviews were used to explain the results generated from the questionnaire.After piloting and revising the questionnaires,the author sent out the questionnaires through So Jump,collecting 1214 valid questionnaires in the end.994 of the response questionnaires were from students and 220 were from teachers.12 students and 6 teachers participated in the interview.Students and teachers taking part in the present study were from English and non-English majors,low and high-grade,and key and common universities.The results of the present study reveal that:1)Current speaking tests in most universities are not satisfactory.Most students and teachers did not think speaking tests are facilitative of speaking ability and most speaking tests do not have the function of diagnosis;2)Both students and teachers expressed high need of a diagnostic speaking test.In addition,female,English-major,high-grade and key universities students showed stronger need.And teachers showed significantly higher need than students;3)In terms of preferences for diagnostic speaking tests,both students and teachers expected a diagnostic speaking test that can diagnose discourse,pragmatic and strategic competence through direct interactions with English teachers,linguistic experts or qualified foreign teachers.And they hoped to get detailed feedback as soon as possible in the form of written or electronic report;4)In terms of background of students and teachers,there are not so many differences in teachers' groups.While from the perspective of students,significant differences were found.Overall,female,English-major,high-grade and key universities students were much more positive in speaking diagnosis and hoped to interact directly with professionals.On the contrary,male,non-English major,low-grade and common universities students were less positive and preferred indirect diagnosis.Based on the findings of this study,the author concludes that it is highly necessary to develop diagnostic speaking tests.Linguists and English teachers should raise the awareness of the necessity and importance of diagnostic speaking tests.In addition,it is necessary to consider students' preferences.Diagnostic speaking tests can be in the form of face-to-face interview and also computer diagnosis.In addition,diagnosticians should be qualified and detailed immediate feedback should be offered.And factors like students' gender,major,grade could also be considered so as to choose the best diagnosis form and improve diagnostic effect.