Can an Oral Test Change Teachers’ and Students’ Strategies and Materials?

Abstract:

This paper aims to provide EFL teachers in the Algerian secondary schools practical insights to overcome the array of anomalies present in their teaching and assessment practices that resulted in negative effects on their outcomes. In order to achieve this objective, an oral test was incorporated in the developed achievement tests. The oral test was put into practice on a selected sample that consisted of eight EFL teachers and classes in the Biskra region. In the investigation, a qualitative study was carried out, employing observation as a data collection method. The number of sessions observed was estimated to 55 during one school year. In order to minimize the differences in observation and make teaching comparable, only four observed classes were used in this study. To collect and analyse data, the researcher opted for the Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT). Procedures for data analysis consisted in global viewing of the lessons, general coding of all the observed lessons, sorting and putting the interaction patterns into the observation schedule, and providing detailed description of the organization structures. In terms of the analysis of findings, this study had revealed that the incorporated, oral test had had interesting effects on teachers’ teaching strategies and materials.