Assessor accommodation in the V.C.E. Italian oral test

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Cafarella
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Assessment Task ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Oral Test ◽  
Interactive Nature

Abstract In oral proficiency tests there are occurrences of trouble in interaction such as misunderstanding, non hearing or lack of understanding which may cause breakdown in communication. Within the context of the question-answer framework of an oral proficiency test this study investigates the interactive nature of spoken discourse between students and assessors when there is trouble in talk as perceived by the assessors, with a focus on how they accommodate to the students. A sample of twenty oral transcripts and tapes of the 1992 Victorian Certificate of Education (V.C.E.) Italian Common Assessment Task (C.A.T. 2) were randomly selected and examined. By using Conversation Analysis methodology the purpose of the study was to investigate in repair sequences types of assessor accommodation – how the assessors modified their utterances – the kinds of trouble perceived by assessors, what triggered assessor accommodation and whether the accommodations facilitated student response and participation. This study has implications for assessor training since it highlights which strategies are most successful for ensuring student understanding, participation and appropriate responses as well as demonstrating why and in which environments assessors accommodate.

scholarly journals Diverging task orientations in L2 oral proficiency tests – a conversation analytic approach to participant understandings of pre-set discussion tasks

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Sandlund ◽  
Pia Sundqvist
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Analytic Approach ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
9Th Grade ◽  
Valid Assessment ◽  
National Tests ◽  
National Test

Abstract Presumably most students strive to do well in school and on national tests. However, even in standardized tests, students’ and examiners’ expectations on what it means to ‘do well’ may diverge in ways that are consequential to performance and assessment. In this paper, we examine how students and teachers in an L2 English peer–peer speaking national test (9th grade) display their understandings of appropriate ways of dealing with pre-set discussion tasks. Using conversation analysis and 38 recorded national tests in English in Sweden, we demonstrate, e.g., how teachers’ displayed understandings of how tasks should be appropriately handled steer the interactional trajectory between students in particular directions. The analysis shows that participants spend much time on negotiating understandings of the task-at-hand. We argue that in terms of valid assessment of oral proficiency, task understandings merit more attention, as task negotiations inevitably generate different conditions for different dyads and teachers.

scholarly journals What kind of interaction receives high and low ratings in Oral Proficiency Interviews?

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Seedhouse
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
English Language ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Testing System ◽  
Speaking Test ◽  
Lexical Choice ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interviews ◽  
International English

AbstractBased on a Conversation Analysis (CA) of a corpus of Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI), the study asks what kind of interaction receives high and low ratings in OPIs. The discussion focuses on issues of interactional organisation, considering turn-taking, sequence, repair and topic development in relation to candidate scores. The study presents findings of two funded studies of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Speaking Test (IST), which is one part of IELTS, a major international English proficiency test.The article explains how interaction in the IST is organised in interactional terms and how this organisation generates opportunities to differentiate high- and low-scoring interaction. The study then lists the interactional characteristics of high-scoring and low-scoring tests, based on an inductive search through the database and analysis of the micro-interaction. Extracts are presented to support characterisations. Differences in score correlate to the following interactional differences in Parts 1 and 3 of the IST: ability to answer the question, engage with and develop a topic coherently, amount of trouble and repair, lexical choice, and identity construction. In Part 2 of the IST, length of turn may also be related to score.

Restrictiveness, exclusivity, adversativity, and mirativity

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fang Wang ◽  
Mei-Chi Tsai ◽  
Wayne Schams ◽  
Chi-Ming Yang
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Interactional Linguistics ◽  
English Only ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Turn Taking

Mandarin Chinese zhishi (similar to English ‘only’), comprised of the adverb zhi and the copula shi, can act as an adverb (ADV) or a discourse marker (DM). This study analyzes the role of zhishi in spoken discourse, based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The corpus used in this study consists of three sets of data: 1) naturally-occurring daily conversations; 2) radio/TV interviews; and 3) TV panel discussions on current political affairs. As a whole, this study reveals that the notions of restrictiveness, exclusivity, and adversativity are closely associated with ADV zhishi and DM zhishi. In addition, the present data show that since zhishi is often used to express a ‘less than expected’ feeling, it can be used to indicate mirativity (i.e. language indicating that an utterance conveys the speaker’s surprise). The data also show that the distribution of zhishi as an adverb or discourse marker depends on turn taking systems and speech situations in spoken discourse. Specifically, the ADV zhishi tends to occur in radio/TV interviews and TV panel news discussions, while the DM zhishi occurs more often in casual conversations.

Statistical analysis of nematode counts from interlaboratory proficiency tests

Nematology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Van Den Berg ◽  
Olaf Hartsema ◽  
Loes J.M.F. Den Nijs
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Accuracy And Precision ◽  
Mean And Variance ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Interaction Variance

A series of proficiency tests on potato cyst nematode (PCN; ) and free-living stages of Meloidogyne and Pratylenchus () were investigated to determine the accuracy and precision of the nematode counts and to gain insights into possible trends and potential improvements. In each test, each participating laboratory received ten samples of soil collected from naturally infested fields and well mixed before distribution. The variance between the counts from the ten samples, estimated per test and laboratory, was constant for PCN cysts and free-living stages of Meloidogyne spp. and Pratylenchus spp. during the period monitored. However, during the initial years, the variance between the samples showed a downward trend for PCN living juveniles. The variance between the laboratories, estimated per test, was constant for PCN cysts over the period 1994-2010. For PCN living juveniles the variance between laboratory means declined from 1994-2000 and from 2000 it was more or less constant, which coincided with the introduction of a well-described new methodology. For Meloidogyne spp. and Pratylenchus spp., from 1998-2005 the variance between laboratory means was more or less constant or increased. From 2006, all participating laboratories incubated the organic matter and the variance between the laboratories was stable and below the levels observed during 2003-2005. After discarding data from initial years with unstable variances of the nematode counts, a meta-analysis was carried out on the remaining data using HGLMs to model the mean and variance of the counts simultaneously. The within-laboratory variance for the ten samples and the interaction variance of test and laboratory were estimated and combined to percentage coefficient of variation (%CV) per laboratory. For PCN cysts, %CV per laboratory ranged from 12.6 to 41.6 and for PCN juveniles in sandy soil from 24.4 to 67.4 and in loamy soil from 37.9 to 102.0. For Meloidogyne spp., %CV ranged from 53.2 to 84.4 and for Pratylenchus spp. from 24.3 to 90.6. The quality of a proficiency test is largely defined by random distribution of the nematodes over the samples allocated, statistical analysis of the data and communication of the results to participating laboratories. This study provides insights into the accuracy and precision at laboratories in recent years and the effect of concerted actions during the period in which the proficiency tests were conducted.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Results of an Interlaboratory Comparison Test on Determination of Acrylamide in Crispbread Samples

2005 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 1413-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Wenzl ◽  
Elke Anklam
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Interlaboratory Comparison ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Joint Research ◽  
Joint Research Centre ◽  
Analytical Results ◽  
Directorate General

Abstract The European Commission's Directorate General Joint Research Centre has organized several proficiency tests on the determination of acrylamide (AA) in food. This paper presents the results and outcome of a proficiency test that focused on the determination of AA in crispbread samples. One of the goals was the identification of the influence of different parameters such as analyte extraction or instrument calibration on the analytical results. A set of samples, containing 3 different crispbread samples as well as extracts of one crispbread sample and AA standard solutions, was shipped to each participant. A total of 42 European laboratories reported analytical results that were evaluated by applying internationally accepted protocols and procedures. The study found that, for each sample, the results of 4–8 laboratories were outside the range formed by the target value plus or minus the 2-fold of the target standard deviation; thus, they did not perform satisfactorily. In transferring this knowledge to the data of monitoring databases of AA in food, care must be taken that data are quality controlled, as it is likely that some of them may be biased.

Are Clinical Laboratory Proficiency Tests as good as They Can Be?

1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
N W Tietz ◽  
D O Rodgerson ◽  
R H Laessig
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Methods ◽  
Proficiency Test ◽  
Clinical Laboratory ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Reference Method ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Target Value ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Matrix Problems ◽  
New Criteria

Abstract Present proficiency test services that use the peer group mean and statistically derived ranges of acceptability are not serving us optimally and are even counterproductive in some respects. We recommend that the target value be determined by a widely accepted reference method and that acceptable ranges be based on criteria related to clinical need. This approach was adopted several years ago in Germany and has already eliminated the use of several unsatisfactory analytical methods. Because the transition would probably take many years, we propose an interim solution to allow instrument manufacturers and laboratorians to adapt to these changes. The current peer group means and acceptable ranges should be supplemented by reference method values and acceptable ranges, based on clinical need, so that manufacturers and laboratorians can judge their performance against these new criteria and make the necessary adjustment in instrumentation and methodology. These processes should be paralleled by efforts to produce proficiency test materials that will not exhibit the matrix problems of present-day preparations.

Approaching life story interviews as sites of interaction

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-187
Author(s):  
Stig-Börje Asplund ◽  
Héctor Pérez Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Interview Research ◽  
Life Story Interview ◽  
The Face ◽  
Life Story Interviews

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore what conversation analysis has to offer when analysing a series of life story interviews aiming to capture how reading and texts are used in a rural working-class man’s identity construction. Design/methodology/approach The conversation analysis methodology with its explicit focus on embodied social action, activity and conduct in interaction is integrated with a life story approach when analysing and describing the identity constructing processes that take place in life story interview settings. Findings Through a close and detailed analysis of the interaction between interviewer and interviewee, and by focusing and highlighting the phenomena and identities that are oriented to in the face-to-face interaction here and now (and in relation to there and then), descriptions of the complex and dynamic identity constructing processes that are set into play in the life story interview are possible. Research limitations/implications It is argued that the approach has a lot to offer when approaching life story data, and thus is a method that can increase the transparency in life story interview research. Originality/value The paper explores the intersection of what is often seen as diametrically opposed forms of analysis: conversation analysis and narrative inquiry.

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