Sociopragmatic performance on the oral proficiency interview: A study of American learners of Chinese

This empirical study explored the extent to which American adult learners of Chinese demonstrated their sociopragmatic competence (i.e., sociolinguistic competence and illocutionary competence) in a request roleplay during the oral proficiency interview (OPI) sponsored by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).;Two Chinese-specific roleplay situations were used: one formal social context (dealing with a police officer), the other informal social context (dealing with a waiter or a waitress). Speech act theory was employed to analyze the participants' performance with respect to their use of three major types of sociopragmatic strategies (SPSs): choice of directness, use of internal modification, and use of external modification. A coding scheme was developed for classifying the strategies and illocutionary behaviors in a total of 1,157 SPSs identified in the roleplay segments of 45 OPIs (27 at the Intermediate-High (IH) level and 18 at the Advanced (A) level). In addition, retrospective interviews were conducted to explore speakers' perceptions of Chinese social norms and their own performance.;Both quantitative and qualitative findings suggest the following: (1) on the whole, the IH speakers used significantly more direct requests than the A speakers. (2) the A speakers' use of internal modifications reflected a little more variety in style than the IH speakers in general; and also showed a bit more sensitivity to contextual change. (3) A speakers appeared to be better able to handle complicated transactions with confidence, though not without effort. Both the A and the IH speakers' skills of negotiation for uncomplicated communicative tasks were, however, in many ways comparable.;The study also examined whether the the OPI's theoretical construct of sociopragmatic competence was consistent with the reality of such performances in the sample. While the roleplay is clearly an excellent vehicle for assessing sociopragmatic competence, its current use in the OPI--to confirm a tentative rating already arrived at--fails to take advantage of the possibilities. The study ends with recommendations for revising the ACTFL's OPI Guidelines.