ABSTRACT Currently, oral examinations are infrequently used for student assessment outside of language classes. Many instructors consider the administering of oral exams time-consuming and their grading subjective, in addition to concerns over raising student stress levels. On the other hand, oral exams provide many potential benefits, including the opportunity to assess deeper levels of student understanding, to provide instant feedback to students, and to develop students’ oral communication skills. This study explores the potential advantages and drawbacks of the oral format using a questionnaire survey among students who completed an oral exam in a mid-level undergraduate geography course. I conclude that for small class sizes orals can offer benefits that outweigh the potential disadvantages, if carefully designed and administered. For students who considered oral skills to be their strength, orals allowed them to excel. For a larger group of students, orals were a stressful experience, but allowed the student to provide potentially a more nuanced answer with prompting from the examiner. A minority of students considered that the oral format had compromised their ability to perform; however, it is arguably this group of students who might benefit most from practicing verbal skills via the oral exam format.

中文翻译：

---

使用口试来评估学生在社会科学方面的学习

摘要 目前，口试很少用于语言课之外的学生评估。除了担心提高学生的压力水平之外，许多教师认为口试的管理很耗时，而且他们的评分是主观的。另一方面，口语考试提供了许多潜在的好处，包括评估学生理解的更深层次的机会，向学生提供即时反馈，以及培养学生的口语交流技巧。本研究通过对完成中级本科地理课程口语考试的学生进行问卷调查，探讨口语形式的潜在优点和缺点。我的结论是，如果精心设计和管理，对于小班授课，口语可以提供超过潜在缺点的好处。对于那些认为口语技能是他们强项的学生来说，口语让他们表现出色。对于更多的学生来说，口语是一种压力很大的经历，但允许学生在考官的提示下提供更细致入微的答案。少数学生认为口语形式损害了他们的表演能力；然而，可以说，通过口试形式练习口语技能的学生可能会受益最大。