Assessment Practices for Oral Presentations: Insights from ESL Instructors

Abstract

Assessment practices offer learners the opportunity to practise and prepare for the actual assessments. Coupled with feedback, this practice is intended to assist them in improving their speaking skills particularly in the language. Providing feedback to the learners for assessment practices has become a vital element in the newly revised course like English for Oral Presentation. Instructors are required to evaluate learners’ assessment practices and provide feedback for the speaking activities to give room for the learners to improve their oral presentations. However, this new structure of the course has impacted the instructors in many ways as they need to wholeheartedly commit to the practices submitted by the learners. This somehow leads to unnecessary stress among the instructors as they need to adhere to the deadlines given. Therefore, this study investigates the perceptions of the instructors on the assessment practices in an oral presentation course and their perceptions on how the assessments can be improved. Qualitative research methodology was employed with purposive sampling technique being utilised in choosing the participants for the interview. After gaining consent from the participants, interview sessions were conducted, recorded and transcribed. The data were then analysed utilising thematic analysis. The findings reported that the instructors were positive towards the impacts of the newly revised course of the oral presentation as learners have improved their presentation skills, enhanced their self-confidence and integrated other skills upon completing the practices. This study provides insights for the betterment of the implementation of the English for oral presentation course.