Speaking Skill Assessment through Debate for University Students

Abstract

Speaking is one of the productive skills in language, including English. Along with writing, speaking serves as a visible skill that show one’s language skill. Not like listening and reading, speaking skill complex in terms of its assessment. Therefore, it needs a proper assessment to really measure the students’ comprehension in speaking skill. In this paper, the writer proposes debate as a comprehensive method to assess the students’ speaking skill. Based on the available literatures, the instruction to do a comprehensive assessment of speaking through debate is proposed, as well as the rubrics used to ensure the assessment’s consistency. Beside the method, the writer also shed light on how debate is seen in the perspective of different test principles. Despite some drawbacks regarding its implementation, as an assessment tool for speaking, debate offers more benefits than just for speaking itself, such as cooperation between the members and critical thinking when building their arguments.