Series Editors' note
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
An overview of oral language assessment
Introduction
Outcome-based research on oral language assessment
What are language assessment interviews?
Past research on oral language assessment
The ACTFL OPI
Empirical studies on the OPI
Research on other oral examinations
The need for process-based research
Discourse-based studies on oral language assessment
Background
Lazaraton's research on ESL course placement interviews
Participant behaviour in oral interviews
Comparisons of interview behaviour with conversation
Comparisons of test format
Comparisons of test scores with produced discourse
Rating scale construction and validation
Summary
Conclusion
Chapter 2
Conversation analysis, institutional talk, and
oral language assessment
Approaches to discourse analysis
Conversation analysis
Background
What is conversation analysis?
What is conversation?
Nonverbal behaviour in conversation
An evaluation of conversation analysis
Institutional talk
What is an interview?
The organization of the interview
Summary
Conclusion
Chapter 3
Data collection and transcription
Data collection and selection
Introduction
Collecting audiotaped data
Collecting videotaped data
Selecting data for transcription/analysis
Summary
Data transcription
Understanding transcription philosophy
Understanding transcription goals
Learning the conversation analysis transcription system
