%0 Journal Article %A Filipi, Anna %D 2017 %T Managing roles in the openings and closings of an Italian oral test %U https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Managing_roles_in_the_openings_and_closings_of_an_Italian_oral_test/5063527 %R 10.4225/03/5930bd2ed98e4 %2 https://bridges.monash.edu/ndownloader/files/8570764 %K Conversational analysis %K 1959.1/6585 %K journal article %K Language testing %K monash:6585 %K Italian language in Australia. %K Monash University. Faculty of Arts. School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. %X This paper reports on one of the findings of a study of twenty-one interactions that occurred during the 1992 Victorian Certificate of Education Italian Oral Common Assessment Task (CAT 2). One of the main aims of the study was to see how roles are constrained by the institutional character of the setting. This was done by examining the interactions occurring in the openings and closings of each segment of the CAT using a Conversation Analysis approach. Not surprisingly, it was found that the assessors initiate and conclude the opening and closing segments of the CAT Violations of this format are rare and when they do occur, the assessors act quickly to reaffirm the roles of each of the participants using features of ordinary conversation. The opening arid closing boundaries also provide one of the few environments in the CAT where students ask and indeed are invited to ask questions. The major sequences in these boundaries are made up of adjacency pairs such as questions and answers, greetings and leave taking and basic expansion sequences. %I Monash University