Assessing students’ oral errors in classroom presentations: Bahir Dar University postgraduate Diploma Program students in focus

Abstract

Analysis of communication problems in second/foreign language education has been considered as one way of assessing language learning needs of students in the course of designing and instructional materials. Assessing language errors of students also provides teachers with more information about their students’ language development and help teachers direct their instructional focus.  The current study examined language errors that two sections of postgraduate diploma students committed during their classroom presentations. Making two oral presentations individually was part of the course offering.  Thus, the oral presentations of two groups of students (Math and Physics) were observed and the data were transcribed to analyze language errors.  The result shows that the students committed more grammar and lexical errors such as tense, voice, diction, agreement and missing auxiliaries that created significant barriers of communication. Besides, the three students interviewed acknowledged that they committed such language errors, and they felt that the problem resulted from limited classroom oral presentation practice. Finally, it is recommended that students have to go through intensive language learning activities and practices that strengthen not only their communication skills in general but also their grammar and lexical knowledge.