Monologue, Dialogue and Multilogue - subsite

it less intimidating to hold a discussion withseveral peers rather than with an examiner ina one-on-one interview, to feel having morecontrol over the direction of the conversation,and to be allowed to produce more naturallanguage than they otherwise would.3. Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of the paper, based on questionnaireresults, is to assess the similarities and differences ofrating criteria of student speaking skills among juniorhigh school, high school and university level Englishteachers. It is hoped that a dynamic assessment ofthe oral proficiency from three aspects (Monologue,Dialogue and Multilogue) can be explored.4. MethodSubjects (N=)junior high school English teachers (n=)high school English teachers (n=)university English teachers (n=)InstrumentsA questionnaire format (see Appendix).ProceduresSubjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire.AnalysesThe data was analysed using the Excelanalysis program and the SPSS statisticalprogram.5. ResultsOverall TendencyMonologue Sampling fluency vocabulary grammar attitude organizationnJH .% .% .% .% .%H .% .% .% .% .%UNIV .% .% .% .% .%Dialogue Sampling fluency vocabulary grammar attitude comprehensionnJH .% .% .% .% .%H .% .% .% .% .%UNIV .% .% .% .% .%Multilogue Sampling fluency vocabulary grammar attitude persuasionnJH .% .% .% .% .%H .% .% .% .% .%UNIV .% .% .% .% .%136Educational Studies 51International Christian University

Table Monologue (percentage) Monologuea. Fluency fluency, pronunciation, intonation, speed,promptness, pauseb. Vocabularyvocabulary, accuracyc. Grammargrammar, accuracyTable 2Dialogue (percentage)d. Attitude attitude, loud/clear voice, eye contact, gesture/body-language, expression, delivery, mood, efforte. Organization organization, coherence, consistency, quantity,length (per sentence), persuasion, memorization,clarity, originality, content, accuracy, emotion, clearconcept of the text, topic, time constrains, bonus Dialoguea. Fluency fluency, pronunciation, intonation, speed, natural/quick response, pause, timingb. Vocabularyvocabulary, accuracyc. Grammargrammar, accuracyd. Attitude attitude,loud/clearvoice, eyecontact, activeparticipation, gesture/body-language, cooperation,participation, feeling, expression, delivery,e. Comprehension comprehension, organization, ask and answerproperly, appropriateness, persuasion, clarity,engaged listening, quantity, content, accuracy,communication ability, function, clear the task,understanding the question, discourse competence,dialectic, having cultural background and knowledgeEducational Studies 51International Christian University137

Table 3Multilogue (percentage) Multiloguea. Fluency fluency, pronunciation, intonation, speed, natural/quick response, pause, tone of voice, promptnessb. Vocabularyvocabulary, accuracyc. Grammargrammar, accuracyd. Attitude attitude, leadership, participation, cooperation,loud/clear voice, eye contact, gesture/bodylanguage,aggressive, positive participation, not shy,teamwork, feeling, expression, delivery, number ofturns, plus more answers, playing a required role,making a friendly atmosphere, respecting partners,May I speak?e. Persuasion persuasion, consistency, organization, ask andanswer properly, appropriateness, logical argument,quantity, content, accuracy, communication ability,function, expressing ideas clearly, task completion,listen to the partner, hearing, understandingpartner's opinion, say the opinion oneself, havingcultural background and knowledge6. Overall Discussion. The lower the educational levels are, the moreimportant attitude becomes. Presumably itis taken for granted that attitude is already aproviso for college students.. In the Monologue and Dialogue skills, Fluencyincluding pronunciation is regarded as importantamong all of the three levels. This is especiallytrue of university teachers. In Multilogue,Fluency is rated relatively lower when comparedwith Monologue and Dialogue.. At the university level, Vocabulary and Grammarare given twice as much weight compared tojunior and senior high schools. Between juniorhigh school and senior high school teachers, thelatter insist more on vocabulary and grammar.. The last (fifth) category in each skill, i.e.Organization in Monologue, Comprehensionin Dialogue, Persuasion in Multilogue, are themost highly thought of by high school teachers,followed by junior high school and universityteachers. Although it is very difficult to establisha clear rating criteria for these three categories(organization, comprehension and persuasion),the teachers among all of three education levelscommonly ask for the same three things: ) easycomprehension of the assigned task for students,) competency of speech organization, ) easycomprehension of the counterparts and theirappropriate responses to them.138Educational Studies 51International Christian University

7. Conclusions and ImplicationsReferencesThe results of the questionnaire in this studydemonstrate a way of looking at the oral skills fromthree tasks (Monologue, Dialogue and Multilogue).According to Van Moere (), most of theperformance-based oral testing research literaturehas focused on the traditional face-to-face interviewor simulated (semi-direct) tape mediated interviews.However, the need for language testers to controlthe test situation, elicit ratable language samples inallocated segments of time, or create scenarios toforce particular language functions may have causedthem to overlook opportunities where examineescan be observed producing rich, natural language inconversation with their peers.As Hughes () underlines, a fundamentalaspect of testing oral skills is the issue of interactivity.Good communication is founded on one speakeractually having an effect on another, and on thereactions and responses which take place betweeninterlocutors. The Certificates in English LanguageSkills (CELS) test format and focus for assessmentis an example of a test framework which takes intoaccount far more of the dynamic and interpersonalfacets of speech communication (Hughes, ). Thisformat demands a greater range of interactive skillsto be used (individual speech, dialogue and threewaydiscussion) and a variety of spoken genres andregisters to be produced.Although it requires time and effort to establish clearrating criteria for different categories in individualtasks, there is also an increased reliability risk of testscores. Therefore, we need to consider the potentialadvantages of group assessments: the benefit of beingable to observe examinees in natural interaction withone another, and allowing them to direct and controltheir own discourse (cf. Van Moere, ).AcknowledgementI wish to thank Mr. Takanori Yano, a Keio Universitystudent, for his support and help in the analysis of this data. Educational Studies 51International Christian University139