Using Observation to Test Speaking Skills among Primary Students Based on School Based Assessment: Malaysian Teachers’ Perceptions

The school based assessment was introduced in the primary level in Malaysian schools in the year 2011. This assessment was established and implemented by the Education Ministry Curriculum Development Department in the new Primary School Standard (The Integrated Curriculum for Primary School) or KSSR to allow students to explore their own abilities. This study has been conducted to investigate the usage of observation method to assess speaking skills among primary students. Basically, in order to gather information based on the set of questionnaires were given to 40 primary school teachers comprising year 1 to year 4 English teachers from different schools. This paper examines the preferences by the teachers on using the observation method or the one to one method in an oral based assessment and also suggestions to improve or revise these methods that will be conducted in the speaking skills assessment in the future.