A Qualitative Approach to the Validation of Oral Language Tests

by Corporate Author University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate

• ISBN13: 9780521002677
• ISBN10: 0521002672
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Language testers have generally come to recognize the limitations of traditional statistical methods for validating oral language tests. They have begun to consider more innovative approaches to test validation, approaches that promise to illuminate the assessment process itself, rather than just assessment outcomes (i.e., ratings). One such approach is conversation analysis (or CA), a rigorous empirical methodology developed by sociologists, which employs inductive methods in order to discover and describe the recurrent, systematic properties of conversation, including sequential organization, turn-taking, repair, preference structure, and topic management. CA offers a systematic approach for analysing spoken interaction from a qualitative perspective, allowing one to make observations about a stretch of talk while at the same time interacting with it. A Qualitative Appraoch to the Validation of Oral Language Tests aims to provide language testers with a background in the conversation analytic framework and a fuller understanding of what is entailed in using conversation analysis in the specific context of oral language test validation.

Table of Contents

1. An overview of oral language assessment

2.Conversation analysis, institutional talk, and oral language assessment

3.Data collection and transcription

4. Data analysis and presentation

5. Some speaking test validation studies using this approach

6. Summary and future directions