Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing - Volume 46, Issue 2/3, 2024

This study explores Dutch oral literature examinations (Mondeling Literatuur) in secondary education, which aim at eliciting an argumentative report of reading experiences on the basis of a selection of literary works. We examine the unfolding interaction within these exams, focusing on how teachers and students use various actions to construct distinct conversational activities. The data consist of 20 video recordings of oral exams from four secondary schools across the Netherlands and our analysis is based on Conversation Analysis. Our findings reveal that beyond the traditional question-answer format, alternative conversational activities emerge, namely more ordinary interaction about books and collaborative interpretation of literary works. Although asymmetries are inherent to the setting these activity types extend the exam beyond its traditional evaluative framework by transforming it into more symmetrical interaction. Through the analysis of prototypical examples of each activity type, this article highlights how Dutch literature exams evolve from formal assessment to shared literary exploration which still occasions pupils to display their knowledge.