Abstract

This article presents and analyses a classroom-based assessment method to test students' speaking skills in a variety of professional settings in tourism. The assessment system has been implemented in the Communication in English for Tourism course, as part of the Tourism Management degree programme, at Florida Universitaria (affiliated to the University of Valencia). Based on our ESP teaching experience, we have noticed a need to design an assessment procedure that would enable us gather several samples of students' speaking competencies throughout the course. An extended process that involved research and meetings with colleagues and students led to the development of the assessment method in question, which can be described as a multimodal communicative approach to testing, organized as continuous assessment, and fully related to the course syllabus. To enhance validity and reliability, we have opted to create an assessment procedure based on a combination of testing formats, rating criteria and rating scales. The procedure involves two testers and the overall grade is based on the results obtained in seven tests. The article reviews contributions to the assessment of speaking abilities, presents our testing procedure, describes its implementation, discusses its advantages and disadvantages, and concludes by analysing its washback effect and pedagogical implications.