L'Évaluation de la production orale en français intensif: critères et résultats

Abstract

This article discusses the evaluation of the oral production of Grade 6 students who participated in the first three years of the Newfoundland and Labrador research project on intensive French (1998 2001). Three areas were investigated: the level of communication achieved; the relationship between the number of hours of instruction and the level achieved; and the development of a balance between accuracy and fluency in oral production. The instruments used included the oral interview administered at the end of the secondary core French program in Newfoundland and Labrador, based on a scale from 1 to 5, and an instrument developed by the researchers to measure the extent to which students had developed both accuracy and fluency in their oral production, evaluated on a scale of 1 to 3. The results for the three years indicate that students attained an average score of 3.7 on the interview, which corresponds to level 4 of the interview scale; that is, they were able to show considerable spontaneity in language production and to initiate and sustain general conversation. However, no direct relationship was found between number of hours of instruction and achievement; teaching strategies used appeared to exert considerable influence on achievement. It was also impossible to distinguish the two factors of accuracy and fluency in the students' oral production.