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MS Word Can Measure Speaking Ability. This Changes Everything #1016

Korean students score at the top of the world in math and science and much lower in English speaking ability. Why? In math class, they have a math test. In science class, they have a science test. In speaking class, they have a grammar test. With videos, transcripts, and data, this presentation describes a test that is easy to give and grade. It both measures and improves speaking ability. Each student gets extensive personal feedback, and teachers get accurate grading and improvement data. In brief: three students of similar ability have a 17-minute conversation. The test is recorded on students’ phones. Students transcribe just what they said on MS Word, in about 90 minutes. MS Word gives their total words spoken and average number of words per utterance. The first test gives their ability; the second test gives their improvement. This is a communicative test, and MS Word measures precisely how much they communicated.