TURKISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON THE ASSESSMENT OF SPEAKING SKILLS

The main purpose of this study is to determine Turkish teachers' views concerning student success, physical conditions, planning, scales, student efficacy, teacher efficacy, feedback, types and dimensions of assessment. This research applied qualitative approach with focus group discussion. Eight Turkish language teachers participated in the study. Convenient sampling was used to select the participants. Focus group discussion was carried out in a semi-structured form. Having transcribed the video and tape recorded interviews, qualitative content analysis was applied. In the analysis of the content, coding system was utilized for both the study group and the questions. According to the findings, Turkish language teachers determine the competencies of speaking assessment in relation to their own attitudes. Although they see the assessment scale criteria as insufficient, they do not prepare their own scales. They do not keep in line with the assessment principles set in the curriculum for three stages, which are for the beginning of the teaching process, for the process itself and for the outcomes of the process. They think that they do not have the necessary competence to assess speaking skill. They do not include the assessment part, which is an inseparable part of planning, in their plans. They also stated that the classroom atmosphere is not suitable either for speaking activities or for assessing the skill. It was observed that they did not know how to give feedback; moreover, they had wrong attitudes and behaviors about this issue. They also mentioned that class hours were not enough for doing speaking activities, assessing or giving feedback. Finally, it was determined that they did not keep student portfolios, so they could not keep track of students' speaking skill development as much as needed.