The author, Kim Hyun Sook has worked for the Korean Education department for 15 years. She recently obtained her Masters from Monash University in Australia.

Ms. Kim is also a lecturer in English to Korean university students. A further research proposal (Developing Communicative Competence through Kagan's Cooperative Learning Structures ) was chosen for award by the Busan Teachers' Association.

Other projects include working as a Teacher Trainer for Korean teachers and assisting in special project research for the advancement of English education in Korea. pdf version

This study aimed:
- to identify the types of speaking assessment tasks used by Korean Junior Secondary School English teachers and the ways in which those assessments were administered;
- to investigate Korean teachers' perceptions of the practical constraints in Korean EFL classrooms which affect assessment of speaking.

This study was conducted, using qualitative methods, with ten Korean Junior Secondary School English teachers. All ten participants responded to a questionnaire which asked for opinions on speaking assessment as well as professional, educational and personal background. Four of the ten also participated in an interview with the researcher to clarify their perceptions of speaking assessment.

The study found that the speaking assessment tasks used by Korean Junior Secondary School English teachers were those which:
- gave the students less psychological burden;
- were time-saving and designed for the convenience of construction and administration;
- did not demand the teacher to take the role of an interviewer.

As well, the study found that when assessing the speaking skills of their students, Korean Junior Secondary School teachers were not concerned with the validity and reliability of their assessments. Nor were the teachers equipped with an adequate theory of speaking assessment. As a consequence, the teachers had little confidence in conducting speaking assessment.

The study revealed the practical constraints of the Korean context which affected the assessment of speaking in the EFL. Participants reported such constraints as large classes and time-consuming, excessive work in addition to face-to-face classroom teaching, lack of training in conducting speaking assessment, lack of effective and efficient assessment instruments, difficulty in eliciting students' responses.

The conclusion is reached that although Korean teachers need to have assistance and encouragement to try new ways of communicative assessment in their EFL classrooms, they need to make themselves aware of the shift in social and educational needs and to make conscious and persistent efforts to introduce more communicative speaking assessment in spite of practical difficulties. For their part, educational administrators need to show greater sensitivity to the teachers' complaints of excessive workload and to reflect teachers' points of view in their decision-making.

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