Interactional Competence in a Videoconferencing-Based Speaking Test: Conceptualised from Teachers’ Perception and Rating

Despite the growing acknowledgement of interactional competence (IC) in speaking tests, there has been teachers’ uncertainty about their views on and understanding of IC assessment, especially when the rapid incorporation of online tests in tertiary institutions is involved. The way IC has been long-conceptualised and how teachers rate IC in speaking tests, therefore, might have to be revisited and viewed with a critical eye to be suited to new circumstances. To fill these two gaps, a qualitative study was conducted at a university in Vietnam to explore EFL teachers’ understanding of IC and IC assessment in videoconferencing speaking tests in the context of transforming from face-to-face to virtual learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers who were involved in the assessment of Zoom-based dialogues between second-year English majors. Thematic analysis of the interviews show that the teachers had their own definitions and conceptualisations of IC features, had several misconceptions of IC and found it challenging to assess IC in the videoconferencing test as the IC features they observed in face-to-face and Zoom-based tests were not entirely the same. The teacher participants also reported to mainly employ Questions and responses, Asking for clarification, Cooperating, Turn-taking, and Body language while never or minimally utilising Planning, Compensating, and Monitoring and Repair. These findings offer insights into context-specific videoconferencing-based assessment of speaking competence and provide useful information for teacher training as well as the incorporation of IC into assessment scales.