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Developing a pragmatics test for Chinese EFL learners

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, jackliu{at}mail.gdufs.edu.cn

Pragmatic proficiency has been incorporated in the EFL teaching and testing syllabi in China, but the corresponding tests still focus on linguistic competence. The gap between the teaching and testing is mainly due to the lack of generally accepted measures of communicative abilities such as pragmatic competence. This study developed a multiple-choice discourse completion test (MDCT) to assess the pragmatic knowledge of Chinese EFL learners in relation to the speech act of apology. The development involved several stages. First, students in China were asked to identify situations in which apologies might be required and to report how likely the situations were to occur in their daily lives. Next, metapragmatic assessment involving both Chinese and North American students was used to ascertain the social variables which applied in each scenario. This was followed by studies to validate the scenarios and to develop multiple-choice options for each scenario. Finally, a pilot test was conducted with 105 Chinese university students. The results provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the test, and suggest that after further investigation it may be feasible to assess the pragmatic competence of Chinese learners by means of a MDCT in the future.

Language Testing, Vol. 24, No. 3, 391-415 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0265532207077206


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