Seeking Clarification in Oral Tests.

Autor/in	Marsh, David
Titel	Seeking Clarification in Oral Tests.
Quelle	(1991), (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Applied Linguistics; Cultural Differences; Discourse Analysis; Finnish; Foreign Countries; Interviews; Language Tests; Oral Language; Questioning Techniques; Standard Spoken Usage; Swedish; Uncommonly Taught Languages; Finland + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Linguistics; Linguistik; Angewandte Linguistik; Kultureller Unterschied; Diskursanalyse; Ausland; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Language test; Sprachtest; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Befragungstechnik; Fragetechnik; Gesprochene Sprache; Umgangssprache; Schwedisch; Minderheitensprache; Finnland
Abstract	This paper examines points in oral test interviews where an interviewee explicitly seeks clarification from the interviewer on the content of a question posed, prior to attempting to answer a question. Some of the interviews are drawn from the Finnish Foreign Language Diploma for Professional Purposes examination (Tyoelaman kielidiplomi); others are taken from foreign language test data collected at the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE). In each oral test interview, the interviewer was a native speaker of English (British or North American) and the interviewees, generally highly educated professionals, were native speakers of Finnish or Finland-Swedish. Four ways of seeking clarification were identified: (1) requests for partial clarification of the points raised in a question; (2) requests for full clarification of the points; (3) requests for clarification of terms; and (4) requests for clarification though nonverbal/paralinguistic signalling. The findings raised more questions than answers. It is suggested that the English native speaker interviewers in the sample attempted to place the test interview in an informal conversational mode, which was partially rejected by the Finnish interviewee. However, an intercultural difference in attitudes toward appropriate styles of discourse in the foreign language oral test interview may have been uncovered. (LB)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC