Noriko Iwashita

Can We Predict Task Difficulty in an Oral Proficiency Test? Exploring the Potential of an Information-Processing Approach to Task Design.

This study addresses the following question: Are different task characteristics and performance conditions (involving assumed different levels of cognitive demand) associated with different levels of fluency, complexity, or accuracy in test candidate responses? The materials for the were a series of narrative tasks involving a picture stimulus; the participants were 193 pre-university students taking English courses. We varied the conditions for tasks in each dimension and measured the impact of these factors on task performance with both familiar detailed discourse measures and specially constructed rating scales, analyzed using Rasch methods. We found that task performance conditions in each dimension failed to influence task difficulty and task performance as expected. We discuss implications for the design of speaking assessments and broader research.

The Effect of Learner Proficiency on Interactional Moves and Modified Output in Nonnative-Nonnative Interaction in Japanese as a Foreign Language.

Abstract The present study, building upon Pica, Holliday, Lewis and Morgenthaler’s 1989 (Comprehensible output as an outcome of linguistic demands on the learner. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11(1), 63–90.) study on modified output, examines the impact of learner proficiency in learner–learner interaction, particularly on opportunities for modified output through interactional moves. Data were collected from learners of Japanese using two different types of tasks. Subjects were divided into three groups (Low–Low, High–High and High–Low groups). The results showed that mixed level dyads provided more interactional moves than same level dyads, but the frequent occurrence of interactional moves did not lead to the greatest amount of modified output. The findings have implications for interactional moves and learners’ modified output, and represent an extension of the research on learners’ output to another foreign language, Japanese.

Estimating the Difficulty of Oral Proficiency Tasks: What Does the Test-Taker Have To Offer?.

This study investigates the impact of performance conditions on perceptions of task difficulty in a test of spoken language, in light of the cognitive complexity framework proposed by Skehan (1998). Candidates performed a series of narrative tasks whose characteristics, and the conditions under which they were performed, were manipulated, and the impact of these on task performance was analysed. Test-takers recorded their perceptions of the relative difficulty of each task and their attitudes to them. Results offered little support for Skehan’s framework in the context of oral proficiency assessment, and also raise doubts about post hoc estimates of task difficulty by test-takers.

Syntactic Complexity Measures and Their Relation to Oral Proficiency in Japanese as a Foreign Language

The study reported in this article is a part of a large-scale study investigating syntactic complexity in second language (L2) oral data in commonly taught foreign languages (English, German, Japanese, and Spanish; Ortega, Iwashita, Rabie, & Norris, in preparation). In this article, preliminary findings of the analysis of the Japanese data are reported. Syntactic complexity, which is referred to as syntactic maturity or the use of a range of forms with degrees of sophistication (Ortega, 2003), has long been of interest to researchers in L2 writing. In L2 speaking, researchers have examined syntactic complexity in learner speech in the context of pedagogic intervention (e.g., task type, planning time) and the validation of rating scales. In these studies complexity is examined using measures commonly employed in L2 writing studies. It is assumed that these measures are valid and reliable, but few studies explain what syntactic complexity measures actually examine. The language studied is predominantly English, and little is known about whether the findings of such studies can be applied to languages that are typologically different from English. This study examines how syntactic complexity measures relate to oral proficiency in Japanese as a foreign language. An in-depth analysis of speech samples from 33 learners of Japanese is presented. The results of the analysis are compared across proficiency levels and cross-referenced with 3 other proficiency measures used in the study. As in past studies, the length of T-units and the number of clauses per T-unit is found to be the best way to predict learner proficiency; the measure also had a significant linear relation with independent oral proficiency measures. These results are discussed in light of the notion of syntactic complexity and the interfaces between second language acquisition and language testing.

Talking, tuning in and noticing: exploring the benefits of output in task-based peer interaction

This study examines whether the process of interacting in a second language, versus observing others interact, may differentially affect learners awareness of language. This study involved 26 university students of intermediate-level French. Two experimental groups, Interactors and Observers, engaged in three sessions of dyadic task-based interaction. The tasks elicited use of noun–adjective agreement and the passé composé. Although the Interactors provided little feedback to one another, subsequent stimulated recall interviews suggest differences between groups as to what they were thinking about during interaction, with Interactors paying more attention to language form. The results suggest that active language production itself (rather than passive observation) pushes learners to think about how to express meaning in the target language, and to draw upon explicit knowledge of the language. The findings contribute to understanding roles of output in second language learning.

Learner attention to form in ACCESS task-based interaction

This study explored the potential effects of communicative tasks developed using a reformulation of a task-based language teaching called Automatization in Communicative Contexts of Essential Speech Sequences (ACCESS) that includes automatization of language elements as one of its goals on learner attention to form in task-based interaction. The interaction data collected from a class for English as a second language (ESL) over a four-week period was analysed for incidence, outcome and characteristics (i.e. focus, initiation, response, and turn length) of language-related episodes (LREs) operationalized as evidence of learner attention to form. The results showed that during ACCESS task-based interactions, learners attended to form as reflected in a large number of LREs. Despite being brief, a majority of these LREs were correctly resolved, self-initiated, self- and other-responded, and focused on the target linguistic item: past-tense verbs. These results are discussed in terms of the potential effects of ACCESS task principles, different task features (i.e. task complexity, pre-task modeling, speaker role and group size), and learners’ approach to tasks on the incidence and characteristics of LREs.

The IELTS Roller Coaster: Stories of Hope, Stress, Success, and Despair

This chapter discusses how a narrative approach can be used to investigate the key constructs of language, culture, identity, and learner beliefs about English language testing. With the globalisation of English and its spread in use, there is a need for a reliable means of assessing English language proficiency. Governments, employers, professional bodies, and educational institutions rely on large-scale international tests to provide them with English language proficiency information. The chapter features participants preparing to take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), a high-stakes test of English language proficiency largely taken for the purposes of immigration and entry into tertiary academic institutions.

Interactional competence: Genie out of the bottle

The papers in this special issue provide support for continued scrutiny of interactional competence (IC) as an important component of the speaking construct. The contributions underscore the complex nature of IC and remind us of the multiple factors that affect any construct definition. At the same time, each study offers insights into those factors through their explorations of IC. In this final paper, we first briefly review key findings from the papers that confirm what is already known about IC and that provide new information to our understanding of the construct of IC. After summarizing points of convergence and of divergence, we turn to a discussion of areas that require additional targeted attention and offer four generalizations as starting points for research. In the final section, we take a critical look at the challenges associated with including IC in the speaking construct and the implications of the studies in this special issue for the relationship between IC and proficiency.