Assessment of oral communicative competence in elementary school: an exploratory study

Abstract

The oral communicative competence comprises verbal, para-verbal and nonverbal skills, used to communicate in different contexts. The present study defends the systematic use of an observation grid in the classroom, which is useful to promote the formation of fluent and competent readers. Methodologically speaking, there were observed 82 students from the 7th and 9th grades, using the Oral Communicative Competence Observation and Assessment Register Grid (Monteiro, 2011a), which contains three communication components: verbal, para-verbal and non-verbal. In terms of the reliability of the measure, results show that the teachers’ and the
investigator’s quotation for global oral communication competence and for verbal and para-verbal communication skills are significantly associated, revealing a good interjudgemental agreement. Even though the 9th grade students present slightly superior results from the 7th grade students, the oral
communication competence do not significantly differs between these two groups (U<995,000, p>0,058). Nevertheless, students with a better academic performance in Portuguese language show a better oral communicative competence [rs=0,559 (p<0,001)].

Keywords
Oral communication competence; Observation and assessment grid; Portuguese Language; Elementary School