Abstract

This paper investigated the current situation of oral English teaching, learning, and assessment at the tertiary level in China through needs analysis and explored the implications for the development of a diagnostic speaking test. Through random sampling, the researcher administered both a student questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire to over 200 students and 30 teachers respectively. Results revealed that students regarded the use of communicative strategies, range of vocabulary and fluency as the most difficult things in their oral English learning. Results also demonstrated that the majority of college English teachers paid much attention to oral English teaching. However, most college English teachers seldom administered classroom oral assessment, and their practices of classroom oral assessment were considered as lack of systematic and standardized procedures. Implications for further improvement in oral English teaching and assessment were also discussed.

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