Noriko Iwashita, Lyn May and Paul Moore
This study investigated features of discourse competence and vocabulary use across levels and tasks in the Aptis Speaking Test. These features are considered to be strongly linked with general performance and are in both the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) language level descriptors and the Aptis rating scale.
Discourse competence was operationalised in terms of the textual features of cohesion and coherence. Selected aspects of cohesion and lexical richness were examined through quantitative and qualitative methods, while coherence was analysed employing qualitative methods.