Re: AAAL Chicago
Chuck Goodwin (GoodwinC who-is-at Garnet.cla.sc.edu)
Mon, 1 Apr 96 09:46:21 EST
With reference to two themes which emerged in recent discussion 1) joint
versus solo activity and 2) lived versus taped (canned) lectures) I'd like
to note the relevance of Tim McNamara's final plenary at AAAL "Interaction
in Second Language Performance Assessment." Tim noted that the core
assumption underlying almost all assessment of language
competence/performance is that what is being assessed is some stable
competence of the INDIVIDUAL being evaluated. However, building on recent
work on Co-Construction (in particular the special 1995 issue of the
journal Research on Language and Social Interaction (ROLSI) (Vol. 28, No.3)
edited by Sally Jacoby and Elinor Ochs), he argued that action is always
co-constructed by multiple parties within a relevant setting, which
strongly calls into question the notion of individual competence and
agency. He also cited studies of comparisons between the same test being
administred "live" and "on tape" and noted that, no matter how hard the
experimenters tried, in the live condition the effects of being in a state
of actual interaction "could never be extinguished." He also raised very
strong questions about the appropriateness of experimental mock-ups of
actual activity systems (for example a key measure of the actual skillful
performance of a health care worker is the ability to listen. However, no
test of language competence has ever given points for silence).
============================
Chuck Goodwin
Anthropology
University of South Carolina
Columbia SC 29208
(803) 356-6006
(803) 777-0259 (fax)