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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank first and foremost Dr. Alan Tonkyn for his support and guidance throughout the length of my studies. His enthusiasm for my work right from the start has been an inspiration, and his patient and meticulous attention to my writings has been much appreciated. I would also like to thank the staff and students at the University of Reading, for making me feel welcome and providing insightful comments into my work.
I am also very grateful to the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations staff for giving me permission to use the IELTS interview tapes which formed the basis of this study. In particular, my thanks to Lynda Taylor and Fiona Barker who have been very helpful since the start.
My thanks also to the Westminster Institute of Education at Oxford Brookes University for support, through funding and in time, and for the encouragement and feedback I received from staff there, particularly in the ICELS department. I would also like to thank Kansai Gaidai University in Japan for supporting me in the early years of the research.
My thanks also go out to Steve McAleer, Martin Millar, and Richard Glover for their help with parts of the coding of the discourse and their