Measuring Oral Proficiency Through Paired-task Performance

Download or read book Measuring Oral Proficiency Through Paired-task Performance written by Ildikó Csépes and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book intends to provide a theoretical overview of examining candidates' oral abilities in different examination formats. In particular, it explores specific partner effects on discourse outcomes and proficiency ratings in the framework of paired-task performance. Two investigations, both set in the context of a proposed Hungarian school leaving examination in English, were carried out in order to contribute to a better understanding of the assumed impact of the chosen variables. Study One investigates discourse differences between examiner-to-examinee interaction and peer-to-peer interaction. Study Two explores the impact of the peer partner's proficiency. The results show that partner effects related to this variable cannot be predicted as either harmful or beneficial since no statistically significant difference was found between 30 candidates' scores in different examination conditions.