An Investigation of Interactional Authenticity in International Teaching Assistant Interview Testing.

A study investigated how non-native speakers of English used linguistic and non-linguistic skills to manage interaction in an interview-style verbal test of English proficiency. Subjects were eight international teaching assistants, four native speakers of Spanish and four native speakers of Chinese, who took a standardized oral interview examination. Analysis of the recorded interviews indicate that those subjects who used appropriate discourse management skills and negotiated a degree of control over the interview process were able to compensate for weaker linguistic proficiency. Successful test-takers were able to modify the power dynamic and reduce the interview asymmetry. Those who framed the interview as a discussion or conversation among peers were more successful than those who framed it as an examination. In addition, evaluators tended to spend less time and energy in the interaction when they were not engaged. Contains 46 references. (MSE)