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Introducing a new comprehensive test of oral proficiency
Elana Shohamy lectures in the School of Education at Tel-Aviv University, where she teaches courses in testing, research methods, and second-language acquisition. Dr Shohamy's research areas are language testing, the effect of testing methods on test-takers' scores, and test bias. She is the author of several articles in these fields.
Thea Reves lectures at Bar-Ilan University. She is Inspector of TEFL at the Ministry of Education, and is in charge of TEFL in secondary, junior-high, and elementary schools in Tel-Aviv. She is involved in curriculum planning, testing, and teacher training at the national level.
Yael Bejarano is Head of the EFL Department at Everyman's University, Israel's Open University, where she is involved in the development of curricular materials and tests, teacher training, and teaching. Dr Bejarano is mainly interested in issues of teaching methodology and second-language acquisition, testing, and the relationship between teaching and testing. She is co-author of Co-operative Learning in the Classroom: Research in Desegregated Schools (1984).
The study reported in this article attempted to experiment with and develop a new oral proficiency test which could replace the existing EFL Oral Matriculation test administered by the Ministry of Education in Israel. The deficiencies of the existing Oral Matriculation test are specified, and the components of the experimental test are described.
The analysis of the data showed that the experimental test had better linguistic, educational, and testing qualities than the existing Oral Matriculation test; namely, it produced a better distribution of scores, showed reasonable rater-reliability, tested a broader range of speech styles, and produced favourable attitudes on the part of the test-takers.
The recommendation to replace the existing test by the new experimental test has since been accepted by the Ministry of Education.
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