摘要：The present study takes as an empirical point of departure the nature of interaction in second language
speaking tests. We examine the relationship between ratings of students’ performance in an oral proficiency test and
the social practice of conducting ‘test talk’. Using conversation analysis, our focal point is how students in peerdriven
test interactions manage trouble related to the task-at-hand. Given that students were assessed not only on
their linguistic skills, but also on their interactional ability and treatment of topics assigned, our emphasis on task
management stems from a hypothesis that orientation to the test task is intimately connected to overall test outcome.
We demonstrate that different types of task-related trouble (TRT) reveal diverse understandings of the test task and
that ‘doing-being a successful task manager’ is connected to a moderate orientation to the task and test format.
Students displaying such task management strategies were also assessed as highly proficient, whereas other task
management strategies identified in our study correlated with low scores and grades. However, the relationship
between subskill ratings and task management was not always clear-cut. We argue that the diverging understandings
of the test task that learners display become part of how they are assessed and that certain task management
strategies are rated less favorably than others. Our study holds promise for the fine-tuning of oral proficiency subskill
ratings and raises questions as to the framing of test tasks, since this appears to have implications for student
performance and evaluation.
