Rubric Design and Development for English Speaking Practice and Performance in the First-year University Classroom

As part of an ongoing action research project researchers collaborated on the creation,administration, and evaluation of a formative speaking assessment tool. A primary element of this tool was an analytic rubric to help first- and second year university students across departments practice and improve their speaking skills. The impetus of this research emerged from the results of previous speaking assessment studies involving second-year students. Though the previous learning outcomes appeared to have been achieved on average, the evaluation results of the second-year students tended to range around the high end of the grading rubric. This prompted researchers to have a closer look at the most recent rubric in use and improve its clarity, comprehensibility and transparency. The assessment tool and rubric integrated clear learning objectives, independent practice, peer evaluation and transparent instructor evaluation enabling researchers to focus on supporting student learning and confidence. The research questions were: 1) How did editing and revising the rubric affect student results? 2) How did editing and revising the rubric increase student confidence? This study took a mixed method approach where data from student grades and survey results were collected and analyzed. The data from the assessments showed that after introducing the newest version of the rubric student grades showed less extreme off shoots and were centered around the expected results. In addition, survey responses were positive regarding the rubric’s efficacy in supporting students’ English language speaking confidence.