Speaking Self-Assessment Rubric
Score your own recordings honestly on the seven criteria below. This rubric mirrors the qualities ETS raters reward — but it is a study tool, NOT an official TOEFL score.
| Criterion | Strong (≈ band 5-6) | Developing (≈ band 3-4) | Beginning (≈ band 1-2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery | Paced, steady, intelligible; pauses organize ideas. | Frequent stalls or rushing blur words. | Long silences; speech often hard to follow. |
| Language use | Varied, accurate sentences; errors rarely affect meaning. | Mostly simple sentences; errors noticeable. | Fragments and errors that obscure meaning. |
| Topic development | Complete answer: position + support + ending, on-question throughout. | Answer present but thin or partly off-track. | Minimal response; question barely addressed. |
| Grammar | Range of structures used accurately under time pressure. | Basic structures mostly accurate. | Grammar breaks down beyond memorized chunks. |
| Vocabulary | Precise, topic-appropriate words and natural collocations. | General words ('good', 'thing') dominate. | Vocabulary too limited to develop ideas. |
| Pronunciation | Stress, rhythm and sounds clear on first listen. | Understandable with occasional listener effort. | Frequent effort needed; endings/stress often lost. |
| Coherence | Ideas linked visibly (first, because, for example, so). | Some linking; sequence occasionally jumps. | Ideas listed without connection. |
Method: score each criterion after listening ONCE to your playback. Your lowest criterion is your next practice target — fix one thing at a time.
Self-evaluation checklist (after each recording)
This checklist is a self-study tool. It is NOT an official TOEFL score and no browser tool can give one — use it to find the one thing to fix next time.