Assessment of the speaking skill in Algeria: facts and challenges

الملخص EN

With the growing need to connect with people all over the world, it is high time to focus on speaking as being the fastest and the most effective skill of communication.

the current research paper's objective is to explore how speaking is assessed in Algerian universities and compare it against the standards established for achieving an insightful and effective assessment.

the research work was conducted at Abu Baker Belkaid university in Tlemcen and the participants were eight teachers of the speaking and listening module.

collecting data was through a semi-structured interview with the teachers; it was generally about their experience of teaching this module, the tasks they bring to their students, the most challenges they face, and their general knowledge of the assessment issues.

the results were as expected; the presence of technical problems that impede the progress of learning such as deficiency of materials and rooms; learners' difficulties like lack of motivation, silent students, and anxious students; and insufficient experience with speaking assessment among teachers.

in that regard, some remedies were suggested to alleviate these challenges and reconsider speaking assessment practices.