The Role of Gazing Behaviors in Navigating Paired Role-Play Interactional Competence Assessment Tasks


UYAR G., Balaman U.

Language Assessment Quarterly, vol.21, no.3, pp.266-286, 2024 (AHCI) identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 21 Issue: 3
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/15434303.2024.2375651
  • Journal Name: Language Assessment Quarterly
  • Journal Indexes: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Communication Abstracts, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Psycinfo
  • Page Numbers: pp.266-286
  • Erzincan Binali Yildirim University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This paper deals with an end-of-semester interactional competence (IC) assessment of L2 oral communication skills for higher education students. Despite the growing research interest in L2 IC assessment using paired role-play tasks, the non-verbal actions of the learners in these contexts remain largely unexplored. With this in mind, this study uses multimodal Conversation Analysis to examine gazing at role-cards in orienting to, structuring, and navigating through the assessment situations, and displaying IC by attending to task initiation, asking/giving task-relevant details, eliciting/making/delaying offers, and ending the conversation. The findings bring new insights into multimodal aspects of L2 IC assessment.