RYŠKA, David. Task openings during EFL oral proficiency exams : a focus on topic organisation. In 18th International Pragmatics Conference, 9.-14. července 2023, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brusel, Belgie. 2023.
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Basic information
Original name Task openings during EFL oral proficiency exams : a focus on topic organisation
Authors RYŠKA, David.
Edition 18th International Pragmatics Conference, 9.-14. července 2023, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brusel, Belgie, 2023.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Presentations at conferences
Field of Study 60203 Linguistics
Country of publisher Belgium
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
Organization unit Faculty of Arts
Keywords (in Czech) konverzační analýza; interakce; jazykové testování; angličtina jako cizí jazyk
Keywords in English conversation analysis; interaction; language testing; English as a foreign language
Tags International impact
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D., učo 39970. Changed: 5/2/2024 11:06.
Abstract
My analysis builds on the dataset of video-recordings featuring 44 paired or grouped interactions between Czech university EFL students who are taking an oral proficiency exam that follows the B2 First format (assessment criteria included). By employing the method of multimodal Conversation Analysis, I investigate the variety and complexity of both verbal and multimodal resources employed by students of various final test score to initiate the collaborative task and develop it into a fully-fledged discussion. The findings have revealed that a successful task initiation is largely dependent on two factors: 1) the complexity of resources used by a student to formulate the first discussion topic or a question and to relinquish the floor afterwards, and 2) the other student(s)’ ability to produce a contingent first response. Regarding 1), the first turns of higher-scoring students are generally shorter, more frequently accompanied by gazing at the co-participants to monitor their recipiency and to signal a potential transition-relevance place (Goodwin, 1981), and concluded by an opinion-seeking question (e.g. “what do you think?”, see e.g. Balen et al., 2022). As for 2), while higher-scoring students are able to follow up on the first turn by paraphrasing, summarising, or in other ways extending the previous contribution (cf. Lam, 2018), their lower-scoring peers orient extensively to the task prompts instead, opening a new topic without addressing the previous one. The discussed findings expand our understanding of the construct of interactional competence and its development, particularly in relation to topic management and recipient design, and have the potential to inform future oral assessment practices.
Links
MUNI/A/1053/2022, interní kód MUName: Paradigms, strategies and developments - English linguistics and translation III
Investor: Masaryk University, Paradigms, strategies and developments - English linguistics and translation III
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