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Grading Classroom Oral Activities: Effects on Motivation and Proficiency
Author(s) -
Hahn Sidney L.,
Stassen Tamara,
Reschke Claus
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1989.tb02743.x
Subject(s) - grading (engineering) , psychology , situational ethics , german , interview , mathematics education , certification , significant difference , language proficiency , medical education , pedagogy , social psychology , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , civil engineering , political science , law , engineering
The purpose of this pilot study was to gather initial information on the effects of grading on oral production and attitude of high school students in firstyear German classes. The following questions were addmsed in the study: Are structured situational practice activities sufficient, or will students who are graded during situational practice activities be better able to communicate orally than students who are not graded? Is gmding in the form of points counted in the student's final evaluation a motivator or incentive to work harder during such activities? Two groups of beginning German students were studied, one graded, one not graded on their oral perforrnance over the first srjc months of the school term. Each student was then rated in an oral proficiency interview administered by a certified Oral Proficiency Interviewer (OPI), and each student completed an attitude survey. Results indicated that there were differences in proficiency as related to grading for individual students, but no significant difference was found between the two groups, nor again when interaction effects of age, ability, achievement, and learning style were considered. Constrasting attitudes toward grading were expressed by the two groups. The non‐graded group would like to have been graded; the graded group considered grading stressful and nonproductive. The results have interesting implications for teachers and indicate a need for further investigation of the effects of grading with larger numbers than we were able to use in the pilot study.