USING A VIDEOCAMERA AND TASK-BASED ACTIVITIES TO MAKE CLASSROOM ORAL-TESTING A MORE REALISTIC COMMUNICATIVE EXPERIENCE

With the growing popularity of the communicative approach to language teaching, much emphasis has been placed on improving students' oral pr oficiency in the foreign language they are studying. Many questions st ill remain, however-both practical and theoretical-as to how to best i ntegrate oral testing into the classroom. This paper will provide an o verview of the most widely used methods of classroom oral testing, as well as evaluations of their practicality and conformity to the goals of communicative teaching and testing. I will also describe ways I hav e successfully used the videocamera and task-based activities to make oral testing a more realistic communicative experience, one that is bo th less time-consuming and easier for the teacher to evaluate accurate ly and, most importantly, enjoyable rather than stress-producing for t he student.