Oral placement tests at an English language school: ‘Fifth position post-expansions’ creating affordances for additional displays of interactional competence and other beneficial activities

Abstract

Although Oral Placement Tests (OPTs) are widely taken by second language (L2) students entering a new institution, they have attracted little empirical attention. The current study shares findings from a Conversation Analytic investigation into 26 OPTs that took place at a UK-based English language school. In these tests, participants display orientations to different forms of institutionality. Through a four positioned base sequence (Initiation-Response-Feedback+Writing), participants display a test-task orientation to discuss set topics and complete a test-sheet. At this juncture, the examiner can initiate a new base sequence and progress the test. Alternatively, participants can display a contingent topic development orientation by halting this progression and initiating what we term a ‘fifth position post-expansion sequence’. While these do not inform what the examiner writes under each topic of the test-sheet, they develop the talk and serve several other institutional functions designed to enhance test-takers’ experience at the language school. Importantly, these expansions also create opportunities for additional displays of L2 Interactional Competence (L2 IC). This study adds to existing research on the benefits of post-expansion sequences and the L2 IC affordances of an under-researched testing format. It also reveals how OPTs are a flexible L2 assessment format in which test-takers or examiners can break from the restrictive question-answer structure of other formats and develop the talk in an authentic manner. The paper reveals specific methods that test-takers (of various levels) and examiners use to expand beyond simple question-answer sequences, which can inform teaching and assessor training.