GENERIC MARKING DESCRIPTORS FOR THE SPEAKING TEST

SECTION A READING ALOUD

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
FOR READING ALOUD

Pronunciation ,
articulation, and
intonation

Fluency and rhythm

Awareness of
audience, purpose
and context

GRADE
A
9-10

DESCRIPTORS

B
7-8

C
5-6

D
3-4

E
1-2

Pronunciation, articulation and

intonation is accurate
Almost flawless delivery
Excellent awareness of audience,
purpose and context
Pronunciation, articulation and
intonation is almost accurate
with minimal slips
Smooth delivery with minimal
hesitation and pauses
Clear awareness of audience,
purpose and context
Reasonably intelligible
pronunciation, articulation and
intonation with some slips
Uneven delivery with some
hesitation and pauses
Fairly clear awareness of
audience, purpose and context
Numerous errors in
pronunciation, articulation and
intonation which impedes
understanding
Slow and disjointed delivery with
a high degree of hesitation and
unnecessary pauses
Limited awareness of audience,
purpose and context
Pronunciation and articulation is
poor and incomprehensible
Fractured delivery with
extensive hesitation and pauses.
Hardly any awareness of
audience, purpose and context

*** Award a mark of 0 only if the candidate is unable to read even a

single word from the given
text.

SECTION B- SPOKEN INTERACTION

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
FOR SPEAKING
INTERACTION

Personal response

Fluency & coherence

GRADE

A
17-20

DESCRIPTORS

Language accuracy

Pronunciation

B
13-16

C
9-12

D
5-8

Responses are well- developed

Fluent and coherent ideas
A wide range of vocabulary with
a variety of sentence structures
Accurate grammar except for the
first draft slips
Accurate pronunciation
Responses are sufficiently
developed
Generally fluent and coherent
ideas
A sufficient range of vocabulary
with some variety of sentence
structures
Grammar is adequately accurate
but with mistakes at word level
Largely accurate pronunciation
Responses are reasonably
developed
Fairly fluent with some coherent
ideas
A reasonable range of
vocabulary with an adequate
variety of sentence structures.
A few grammatical errors at
word and sentence level but
meaning is not obscured.
Reasonably accurate
pronunciation
Responses are poorly developed
Lack of fluency with incoherent
ideas
A simple range of vocabulary of
repetitive sentence structures

E
1-4

Many grammatical errors which

hinder understading
Mispronunciation may cause
some confusion
Responses are limited
Very poor fluency and idea are
hardly present. Use of L1 may
occur
A limited range of vocabulary
with fractures sentence
structures
Serious grammatical errors that
impede understanding
Poor pronunciation impedes
understanding

*** Award a mark of 1 if any other language is used predominantly

*** Award a mark of 0 if the candidate does not give any relevant
response in English