ALTAANZ
  • About ALTAANZ
  • ALTAANZ Committee
    • Current 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
  • Joining ALTAANZ
  • ALANZ - ALAA - ALTAANZ 2022
  • ALTAANZ Online Research Forum 2021
  • LTRC/ALTAANZ Online Celebratory event 2020
    • About the event
    • Event Programme
    • LTRC Anniversary Symposium
  • Past ALTAANZ Conferences
    • 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 ALTAANZ / LTRC 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
  • Studies in Language Assessment (formerly PLTA)
    • Early View Articles
    • Current Issue
    • About SiLA
    • Past Issues >
      • 2022
      • 2021
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
      • 2016
      • 2015
      • 2014
      • 2013
      • 2012
    • Editorial Board
    • Contributors
  • ALTAANZ Awards
    • ALTAANZ Best Student Paper Award
    • Penny McKay Award
    • PLTA Best Paper Award
  • Sponsorship for Educational Activities
  • Newsletter: Language Assessment Matters
  • Contact us
Assessing Interactional Competence: The role of intersubjectivity in a paired-speaking assessment task
Alfred Rue Burch, Kobe University, Japan
Katharina Kley, Rice University, USA
https://doi/10.0000/0000
Volume 9, Issue 1, 2020
Abstract: Since the turn of the century, the field of language assessment has increasingly turned its eye towards the assessment of Interactional Competence (IC) (Galaczi & Taylor, 2018; Plough et al., 2018; Roever & Kasper, 2018). This study is premised on the argument that a key function of IC is to achieve and maintain intersubjectivity, as made publicly viewable through the practices that participants employ to display that they understand each other, and how they understand each other. The paper thus suggests that IC assessment can and should consider intersubjectivity as a ratable construct. Using Multimodal Conversation Analysis (Goodwin, 2018; Mondada, 2011), the paper examines two paired-speaking assessment tasks conducted by learners of German at the end of their fourth semester of study, focusing on how and when the learners display understanding of prior talk, examining how they receipt turns and display epistemic and affective stances in a publicly viewable way. The study suggests that the same practices the participants employ to display their understandings to each other can be used in a heuristic fashion by language testers to assess IC and concludes by considering the practical implications these have for classroom assessment. 
Keywords: Interactional Competence, Intersubjectivity, Stance, Classroom Assessment, Paired-Speaking Tasks 
Click to download Full Text