Topic as a resource for action: Candidates' embodied
orientations to task prompts during EFL oral proficiency tests

RYŠKA, David and František TŮMA. Topic as a resource for action: Candidates' embodied orientations to task prompts during EFL oral proficiency tests. In ICOP-L2: Interactional Competences and Practices in a Second Language, 5.–7. června 2024, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Dánsko. 2024.

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TY  - CONF
ID  - 2408479
AU  - Ryška, David - Tůma, František
PY  - 2024
TI  - Topic as a resource for action: Candidates' embodied orientations to task prompts during EFL oral proficiency tests
KW  - conversation analysis
KW  - interaction
KW  - language testing
KW  - English as a foreign language
UR  - https://event.sdu.dk/registration-icop2024/program-and-abstracts
N2  - Being able to meaningfully contribute to the ongoing interaction constitutes an important subset of L2 interactional competence, which makes this ability a frequent target of assessment during oral proficiency tests (Galaczi & Taylor, 2018). To ensure the validity and reliability of such assessment, however, the test task must elicit performances which are structurally similar, yet which at the same time allow for differentiation in the candidates' ability to manage a topic. This requirement is particularly challenging when designing pair or group discussion tasks in which the topic is co-constructed by candidates in interaction (Gan et al., 2009). Our paper addresses this challenge by detailing the interactional unfolding of how candidates manage a topic based on standardised task prompts. To do so, we draw on Seedhouse's (2018) distinction between "topic-as-script" (the homogenised topic given to candidates by the examiner) and "topic-as-action" (the various ways in which candidates talk a topic into being) and argue that in pair and group discussion tasks, it is the material artefacts–in our case a worksheet with a diagram mapping the discussion topic through a series of topic prompts–that allow to establish a connection between the script and the action. Building on a dataset of 66 video-recorded pair and group EFL oral proficiency tests collected at a university in Czechia, we employ multimodal conversation analysis (Goodwin, 2018) to analyse instances in which candidates transition from one prompt to another. Specifically, we demonstrate how the candidates' embodied orientations to the worksheet provide affordances for displaying their interactional repertoires (Hall, 2018) for closing, initiating, and developing a topic in a manner which is comparable, and hence testable across various performances. These findings contribute to the body of research operationalising the construct of L2 interactional competence for assessment purposes (Galaczi & Taylor, 2018; Malabarba & Betz, 2023).
ER  -

Basic information
Original name	Topic as a resource for action: Candidates' embodied orientations to task prompts during EFL oral proficiency tests
Authors	RYŠKA, David and František TŮMA.
Edition	ICOP-L2: Interactional Competences and Practices in a Second Language, 5.–7. června 2024, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Dánsko, 2024.

Other information
Original language	English
Type of outcome	Presentations at conferences
Field of Study	60203 Linguistics
Country of publisher	Denmark
Confidentiality degree	is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW	URL
Organization unit	Faculty of Arts
Keywords in English	conversation analysis; interaction; language testing; English as a foreign language
Tags	International impact
Changed by	Changed by: Mgr. David Ryška, učo 438950. Changed: 6/6/2024 16:54.

Abstract

Being able to meaningfully contribute to the ongoing interaction constitutes an important subset of L2 interactional competence, which makes this ability a frequent target of assessment during oral proficiency tests (Galaczi & Taylor, 2018). To ensure the validity and reliability of such assessment, however, the test task must elicit performances which are structurally similar, yet which at the same time allow for differentiation in the candidates' ability to manage a topic. This requirement is particularly challenging when designing pair or group discussion tasks in which the topic is co-constructed by candidates in interaction (Gan et al., 2009). Our paper addresses this challenge by detailing the interactional unfolding of how candidates manage a topic based on standardised task prompts. To do so, we draw on Seedhouse's (2018) distinction between "topic-as-script" (the homogenised topic given to candidates by the examiner) and "topic-as-action" (the various ways in which candidates talk a topic into being) and argue that in pair and group discussion tasks, it is the material artefacts–in our case a worksheet with a diagram mapping the discussion topic through a series of topic prompts–that allow to establish a connection between the script and the action. Building on a dataset of 66 video-recorded pair and group EFL oral proficiency tests collected at a university in Czechia, we employ multimodal conversation analysis (Goodwin, 2018) to analyse instances in which candidates transition from one prompt to another. Specifically, we demonstrate how the candidates' embodied orientations to the worksheet provide affordances for displaying their interactional repertoires (Hall, 2018) for closing, initiating, and developing a topic in a manner which is comparable, and hence testable across various performances. These findings contribute to the body of research operationalising the construct of L2 interactional competence for assessment purposes (Galaczi & Taylor, 2018; Malabarba & Betz, 2023).

Links
MUNI/A/1328/2023, interní kód MU	Name: Jazyk, literatura a kultura v anglofonních kontextech I
MUNI/A/1328/2023, interní kód MU	Investor: Masaryk University, Language, literature and culture in Anglophone contexts I

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Topic as a resource for action: Candidates' embodied orientations to task prompts during EFL oral ...

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