ALTAANZ
  • About ALTAANZ
  • ALTAANZ Committee
    • Current Committee
    • Past Committees >
      • 2024 Committee
      • 2022 - 2023 Committee
      • 2021 Committee
      • 2020 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2018 - 2019 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2017 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2016 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2015 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2014 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2013 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2012 ALTAANZ Committee
      • 2011 ALTAANZ Committee
  • Events
    • ALTAANZ Online Conference 2025 >
      • Registration 2025
      • Keynote Speakers
    • Past Conferences >
      • The Applied Linguistics ALAA/ALANZ/ALTAANZ Conference 2024
      • ALTAANZ Online Conference 2023 >
        • Program 2023
        • Plenary Sessions 2023
        • Registration 2023
        • Conference Committee 2023
      • ALANZ - ALAA - ALTAANZ 2022
      • ALTAANZ Online Research Forum 2021
      • LTRC/ALTAANZ Online Celebratory event 2020 >
        • About the event
        • Event Programme
        • LTRC Anniversary Symposium
      • ALANZ / ALAA / ALTAANZ Auckland 2017
      • ALTAANZ Conference Auckland 2016 >
        • Keynote Speakers >
          • Plenary Abstracts
        • Teachers' Day
        • Pre-conference workshops
        • Conference programme
      • ALTAANZ Conference Brisbane 2014
      • ALTAANZ Conference Sydney 2012
    • Past Workshops >
      • LTRC / ALTAANZ Workshops July 2014 >
        • Test analysis for teachers
        • Diagnostic assessment in the language classroom
        • Responding to student writing
        • Assessing Pragmatics
        • Introduction to Rasch measurement
        • Introduction to many-facet Rasch measurement
      • LTRC / ALTAANZ workshops September 2015 >
        • A Practical Approach to Questionnaire Construction for Language Assessment Research
        • Integrating self- and peer-assessment into the language classroom
        • Implementing and assessing collaborative writing activities
        • Assessing Vocabulary
        • Revisiting language constructs
  • SiLA Journal
    • About SiLA
    • SiLA Publication Policies
    • Early View Articles
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues >
      • 2024
      • 2023
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
    • Editorial Board
    • Submission Guidelines
  • Awards
    • ALTAANZ Best Student Paper Award
    • Penny McKay Award
    • SiLA Best Paper Award
  • Funding Opportunities
  • Newsletter: Language Assessment Matters
  • Resources
    • Best practice in language testing & assessment
  • Join ALTAANZ
  • Contact us
Authentic interaction and examiner accommodation in the IELTS speaking test: A discussion
Anna Filipi, Monash University
https://doi.org/10.58379/KDBK9824
Volume 4, Issue 2, 2015
Abstract: Speakers naturally adjust their speech in interactions with others and will use accommodative strategies if their co-speaker is having difficulty understanding. These same adjustments have also been found in examiner accommodation in second language speaking tests (Cafarella, 1997; Ross, 1992). In the training of examiners in the IELTS speaking test, there is an attempt to control the degree of examiner accommodation in the interests of consistency. Examiners are explicitly instructed to avoid the use of response tokens or to repeat a question only once without rephrasing it in the face of repair (Seedhouse & Egbert, 2006). This specific attempt to remove aspects of what is deemed to be authentic1 interactional behaviour runs counter to what speakers do ‘in the wild’ as the growing body of research in conversation analysis shows (see for example Hutchby & Wooffit, 2008). We believe that it is timely to discuss the issue of examiner accommodation within a language-testing context against a backdrop of what is now known about naturally occurring interaction. We initiate such a discussion by reviewing the scholarly literature on interaction, and on the IELTS speaking test and examiner accommodation.
Keywords: IELTS speaking test, examiner accommodation, conversation analysis, authentic interaction 
Click to download Full Text