Maritime Oral Communication Assessment Portfolio

What is MOCAP?

MOCAP was developed by the Second Language Education Centre (SLEC) under a grant from the Maritime Provinces Education Foundation (MPEF). This French second language (FSL) evaluation package was researched and designed by Sally Rehorick and Joseph Dicks in collaboration with teachers, school board personnel and department of education consultations from the three maritime provinces.

MOCAP's assessment tools are designed to evaluate the oral communication performance of students in grades six and nine core and immersion French. The techniques are adaptable to other levels.

The assessment techniques in MOCAP focus on situations requiring authentic communication of messages, ideas, feelings and/or opinions. MOCAP corresponds to the recommendations of the Communicative/Experiential Syllabus and the General Language Syllabus of the National Core French Study.

MOCAP is a formative and diagnostic assessment tool aimed at assessing a student's strengths and weaknesses in the spoken FSL. The techniques are thematically based.

MOCAP uses a portfolio approach to assessment in that it is formative and collaborative in nature. The purpose of the portfolio is to provide a progressive and developmental view of an individual FSL student's oral communication abilities.

THE TEACHER'S GUIDE

The guide describes the evaluation package, the levels at which it is intended to be used, the method of evaluation, the types of evaluation, and the directions for administering and scoring the techniques.

FOUR THEMATIC EVALUATION UNITS
  • Loisirs: Grade 6 core French
  • Voyages et Excursions: Grade 9 core French
  • Alimentation: Grade 6 French Immersion
  • Environnement: Grade 9 French Immersion
  • EVALUATION TECHNIQUES
  • Dessins pour Parler: Images designed to guide description or narrative (core French only).
  • Formulaire: Short forms designed to guide question/ answer type communication between two students (core French only).
  • Questionnaire: Questionnaires designed to guide an interview type conversation between two students (French immersion only).
  • Compte Rendu: Audio taped texts or dialogues which students hear and then summarize in their own words. (French Immersion only).
  • Écart d'Informations: A collaborative activity which requires two students to cooperate in providing one another with missing information.
  • Jeu de Rôles: Scenarios which require students to role play certain situations.
  • Discussion de Groupe: Scenarios which require small groups to participate in a guided conversation. For immersion students this activity takes a debate-type format whereas for core students the discussion is more question and answer oriented.
  • ÉVALUATION

    This section contains descriptions of three levels of performance, an individual evaluation form for each technique, and a student self-assessment questionnaire.

    APPENDICES

    There are two appendices with MOCAP. The first is a list of language tasks and grammatical content for all the techniques. The second is a list of references.

    The Second Language Education Centre offers two MOCAP workshops:

  • Train-the-teacher Workshop - A two-day workshop to train French second language teachers in the use of MOCAP for their classroom.
  • Train-the-trainer Workshop - A one-day workshop to prepare experienced MOCAP users to train other teachers in the use of MOCAP.
  • The MOCAP package can be purchased in three formats:

  • The colour-coded MOCAP binder with accompanying audio cassettes.
  • A camera-ready (white) copy of MOCAP and one set of audio cassettes with copying rights for a specified number of copies.
  • The MacIntosh disk and one set of audio cassettes with reproduction rights for a specified number of copies.

  • In addition to the original MOCAP binder, a follow-up document entitled "MOCAP: A Teachers' Collection" is also available. This collection follows the same methodology as the original but includes assessment items related to additional themes (e.g., sports, family, music) and more grade levels.

    For more information concerning MOCAP, please contact:

    Second Language Education Centre
    University of New Brunswick
    Faculty of Education
    Fredericton, N.B. Canada E3B 6E3
    tel: (506) 453-5136
    fax: (506) 453-4777
    e-mail: slec@unb.ca

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