What Your Learner Can Articulate Verbally: An Assessment Tool

A helpful resource for assessing your learner's speaking ability.

Here's a resource that I think is helpful for assessing your learner's spoken proficiency. I like this rubric because it targets specific tasks relevant to most learners' daily lives.

Complete the rubric with your learner (and think of it as a good reading task as well!).

As you complete the grid, keep in mind that very task itself can be confusing to learners who have little formal education and who haven't yet learned what a grid asks them to do. So be sure to teach the skills relevant to filling out a grid like the one above. 

The far-left hand column indicates that your learner is competent with a particular task; the far-right hand column, areas where your learner may or may not need help. 

And here's another way to use the rubric: let's say you're meeting with your learner for the first time and are nervous about what to teach first. Well, use the rubric to discover where your learner's weaknesses are, and teach towards them. 

For example, say the grid reveals that your learner can't figure out their phone or electric bill. Good place to start! Use a real phone or electric bill as a piece of teaching material.

Or, let's say you've met with your learner several times, and now you're curious about where her verbal abilities lie for common tasks. Assess her abilities with  this nationally-used rubric to find out!

Happy Tutoring!

Jiyoung

Jiyoung Song
Programs and Social Media Intern, English At Large
Dartmouth College, Class of 2016 


ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
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