ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the findings from a conversation analysis conducted on beginning German learners’ speaking test data and discusses the development of a rubric, which is based on the emically derived findings of the data analysis and the teacher’s curricular goals. It also presents the speaking test data from learners enrolled in a second-semester German course at a language center of a private research university in the United States. These learners have been part of an innovative and experimental pedagogical effort to explicitly teach Interactional Competence (IC) in the beginning semesters of German language instruction. As early as 1986, Claire Kramsch argued that the goal of second language teaching and learning should shift from grammatical accuracy to IC that is; the skills and knowledge that individual employ to engage in interaction. The chapter analyses the importance of a data-driven approach for the development of rubrics in classroom-based IC speaking tests.
