What scores from monologic speaking tests can(not) tell us about interactional competence

2021 ◽  
pp. 026553222110033
Author(s):  
Carsten Roever ◽  
Naoki Ikeda
Keyword(s):  
Management Skills ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Toefl Ibt ◽  
Test Use ◽  
Lower Correlation

The overarching aim of the study is to explore the extent to which test takers’ performances on monologic speaking tasks provide information about their interactional competence. This is an important concern from a test use perspective, as stakeholders tend to consider test scores as providing comprehensive information about all aspects of L2 competence. One hundred and fifty test takers completed a TOEFL iBT speaking section consisting of six monologic tasks, measuring speaking proficiency, followed by a test of interactional competence with three monologues and three dialogues, measuring pragmalinguistic skills, the ability to recipient design extended discourse, and interactional management skills. Quantitative analyses showed a medium to high correlation between TOEFL iBT speaking scores and interactional scores of r = .76, though with a much lower correlation of r = .57 for the subsample most similar to a typical TOEFL population. There was a large amount of variation in interactional scores for test takers at the same TOEFL iBT speaking score level, and qualitative analyses demonstrated that test takers’ ability to recipient design their talk and format social actions appropriate to social roles and relationships was not well captured by speaking scores. We suggest potential improvements.

Speaking in turns and sequences: Interactional competence as a target construct in testing speaking

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Roever ◽  
Gabriele Kasper
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Sequential Organization ◽  
Target Construct ◽  
Shared Understandings

In the assessment of speaking, a psycholinguistically based speaking construct has predominated. In this paper, we argue for the integration of the construct of interactional competence (IC) in speaking assessments to broaden the range of defensible inferences from speaking tests. IC emphasizes the co-constructed nature of interaction and enables the rating of L2 users’ ability to deploy interactional tools that lead to shared understandings. Recent work on IC shows that levels of development can be distinguished, for example, in the sequential organization of social actions such as requests and refusals. This can in turn inform interactionally specific ratings. Furthermore, an IC perspective allows a fine-grained analysis of interactions between examiners and test takers to detect effects of examiner talk. Apparent misunderstandings or disfluencies by test takers can be examiner-induced with the test taker’s response actually demonstrating interactional ability rather than lack of proficiency. We argue that inclusion of IC as a construct in testing speaking opens new perspectives on oral proficiency and enhances the validity of speaking assessments.

Test Use in Work Settings

2016 ◽  
pp. 203-216
Author(s):  
Dirk D. Steiner ◽  
Neal Schmitt
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Situational Judgment Tests ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Important Concern ◽  
Ability Tests ◽  
Skilled Personnel ◽  
Ethnic Subgroups ◽  
Test Use

Chapter 14 describes the various tools used in selecting employees in the workplace, such as cognitive ability tests, personality tests, and situational judgment tests, among others. Globalization of business has resulted in the adoption of mostly Western testing procedures by the rest of the world. The research base supporting some tests, especially cognitive ability and personality tests, is extensive; however, the use of tests seems to be more a function of their cost and the availability of skilled personnel to administer and interpret the test scores. Validation research has been conducted mostly in the United States and Europe and has sometimes focused on methods (e.g., interviews, assessment centers) rather than a more important concern with the constructs represented by these methods (e.g., cognitive ability, conscientiousness). Of particular concern is the observation that some constructs or methods of measurement produce large differences between gender or racial/ethnic subgroups.

How Can Migrants’ Language Proficiency Be Measured? A Discussion of Opportunities and Challenges When Studying the Impact of Language Skills on Social Position

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 695-704
Author(s):  
Isabell Diekmann ◽  
Joanna Jadwiga Fröhlich
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
The Impact

Language proficiency is crucial for migrants’ social position in the labour market and therefore plays a key role in the (re-)production of social inequalities in modern societies. There are different ways of capturing language skills in quantitative studies. However, it is important to question the extent to which existing language measures mirror migrants’ realities and relevant linguistic everyday life practices. In our paper, we contribute to this question by disentangling various measures of language proficiency. We use a large sample of migrants in Germany (GSOEP) that contains numerous language measures. We conduct detailed quantitative analyses on how various language variables influence migrants’ social position, by which we mean migrants’ socioeconomic status (as measured by ISEI). The ISEI is mainly based on occupation, but also on education and income. Our findings indicate that especially the self-assessed German speaking proficiency is an important and parsimonious predictor for migrants’ social position in Germany.

scholarly journals Oral English performance in Danish primary school children: An interactional usage-based approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-546
Author(s):  
Søren W. Eskildsen ◽  
Teresa Cadierno
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
School Children ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
Oral Test ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
Picture Description ◽  
Description Task

Following the call in Sandlund, Sundqvist, and Nyroos (2016) for incorporating discursive approaches into the field of oral second language (L2) testing, this paper proposes an interactional usage-based approach to the analysis of oral L2 performance. Based on Eskildsen (2018a), we combine analytic tools from usage-based linguistics and conversation analysis. We draw on usage-based linguistics to analyze performance in terms of test-takers’ inventories of linguistic constructions and on conversation analysis to understand their interactional competence in terms of the relation between the linguistic constructions and the actions they are used to accomplish. Performance assessment is thus constructional and interactional. Participants in this pilot study were two Danish primary school children who performed two consecutive oral tasks: a semi-guided interview and a picture-elicited narrative task. Data were analyzed by means of cross-child comparisons and cross-task comparisons within each child. Our data confirm the observation from previous research that simple question-answer(-assessment) sequences dominate oral test formats, but also that the format is sometimes abandoned, which allows for the accomplishment of new social actions. Moreover, the picture-description task affords a different speech exchange system with the interviewer participating more as an active listener when the children do not voluntarily carry out the requested task.

Spectroscopic Diagnostics of Tokamaks

1988 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 165-174
Author(s):  
C. de Michelis
Keyword(s):  
Transport Properties ◽  
Power Losses ◽  
Spectroscopic Diagnostics ◽  
Important Concern

AbstractImpurities being an important concern in tokamaks, spectroscopy plays a key role in their understanding. Techniques for the evaluation of concentrations, power losses and transport properties are surveyed, and a few developments are outlined.

In situ microprobe quantitation of inorganic particle burden in paraffin sections of lung tissue

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 990-991
Author(s):  
Jerrold L. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Lung Tissue ◽  
Quantitative Information ◽  
Particulate Material ◽  
Paraffin Sections ◽  
Tissue Samples ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Past ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Data Result

Inorganic particulate material of diverse types is present in the ambient and occupational environment, and exposure to such materials is a well recognized cause of some lung disease. To investigate the interaction of inhaled inorganic particulates with the lung it is necessary to obtain quantitative information on the particulate burden of lung tissue in a wide variety of situations. The vast majority of diagnostic and experimental tissue samples (biopsies and autopsies) are fixed with formaldehyde solutions, dehydrated with organic solvents and embedded in paraffin wax. Over the past 16 years, I have attempted to obtain maximal analytical use of such tissue with minimal preparative steps. Unique diagnostic and research data result from both qualitative and quantitative analyses of sections. Most of the data has been related to inhaled inorganic particulates in lungs, but the basic methods are applicable to any tissues. The preparations are primarily designed for SEM use, but they are stable for storage and transport to other laboratories and several other instruments (e.g., for SIMS techniques).

Modern TEM systems architecture

1986 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 602-605
Author(s):  
U. Gross ◽  
P. Hagemann
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Information Gathering ◽  
Systems Architecture ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
New Information ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Scanning Transmission ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Analytical Equipment

By addition of analytical equipment, scanning transmission accessories and data processing equipment the basic transmission electron microscope (TEM) has evolved into a comprehensive information gathering system. This extension has led to increased complexity of the instrument as compared with the straightforward imaging microscope, since in general new information capacity has required the addition of new control hardware. The increased operational complexity is reflected in a proliferation of knobs and buttons.In the conventional electron microscope design the operating panel of the instrument has distinct control elements to alter optical conditions of the microscope column in different modes. As a consequence a multiplicity of control functions has been inevitable. Examples of this are the three pairs of focus and magnification controls needed for TEM imaging, diffraction patterns, and STEM images.

Commitment to pro- versus counter-attitudinal behavior and the dynamics of social representations

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Tafani ◽  
Lionel Souchet
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Cognitive Restructuring ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Dimensional Model ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Dimensional Model ◽  
Students Attitudes

This research uses the counter-attitudinal essay paradigm ( Janis & King, 1954 ) to test the effects of social actions on social representations. Thus, students wrote either a pro- or a counter-attitudinal essay on Higher Education. Three forms of counter-attitudinal essays were manipulated countering respectively a) students’ attitudes towards higher education; b) peripheral beliefs or c) central beliefs associated with this representation object. After writing the essay, students expressed their attitudes towards higher education and evaluated different beliefs associated with it. The structural status of these beliefs was also assessed by a “calling into question” test ( Flament, 1994a ). Results show that behavior challenging either an attitude or peripheral beliefs induces a rationalization process, giving rise to minor modifications of the representational field. These modifications are only on the social evaluative dimension of the social representation. On the other hand, when the behavior challenges central beliefs, the same rationalization process induces a cognitive restructuring of the representational field, i.e., a structural change in the representation. These results and their implications for the experimental study of representational dynamics are discussed with regard to the two-dimensional model of social representations ( Moliner, 1994 ) and rationalization theory ( Beauvois & Joule, 1996 ).

The Relation Between Teachers' Diagnostic Sensitivity, their Instructional Activities, and their Students' Achievement Gains in Reading*

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Behrmann ◽  
Elmar Souvignier
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Classroom Management ◽  
Reading Program ◽  
Multilevel Analyses ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Management Skills ◽  
Judgment Accuracy ◽  
Achievement Gains ◽  
Instructional Activities ◽  
Main Effects

Single studies suggest that the effectiveness of certain instructional activities depends on teachers' judgment accuracy. However, sufficient empirical data is still lacking. In this longitudinal study (N = 75 teachers and 1,865 students), we assessed if the effectiveness of teacher feedback was moderated by judgment accuracy in a standardized reading program. For the purpose of a discriminant validation, moderating effects of teachers' judgment accuracy on their classroom management skills were examined. As expected, multilevel analyses revealed larger reading comprehension gains when teachers provided students with a high number of feedbacks and simultaneously demonstrated high judgment accuracy. Neither interactions nor main effects were found for classroom management skills on reading comprehension. Moreover, no significant interactions with judgment accuracy but main effects were found for both feedback and classroom management skills concerning reading strategy knowledge gains. The implications of the results are discussed.

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