Complementary functions of face-to-face and online oral achievement tests in a hybrid learning program

Abstract

Recent research has attended to various aspects of oral tasks. Yet there has been very little analysis of how different test tasks and formats are complementary in terms of the skills they elicit. Moreover, the feasibility of conducting oral tests online has not yet been well examined. The current exploratory investigation compared students’ linguistic and interactional competencies in three commonly used oral exam tasks: teacher–student interview, role-play, and monologue. The interview and the role-play were conducted face to face (F2F), and the monologue was conducted in an online format. The data collection was based on third-semester German learners’ three- to five-minute responses to a speaking prompt and analyzed for aspects of communication, interactional, discourse, lexical, and grammatical competence. Results showed that in the online monologue and the F2F interview, students demonstrated similar language abilities that complemented language abilities demonstrated in the role-play.