Assessing Pragmatic Competence

Abstract

From the earliest studies on assessing pragmatics competence in 1995, tests have been of six basic types: written discourse completion task (DCT), multiple‐choice DCT, oral DCT, discourse role‐play task, discourse self‐assessment task, and role‐play self‐assessment. The early tests were designed around speech acts (requests, refusals, and apologies) and included contextual conditions (degree of imposition, power difference, and social distance). This entry (1) reviews how testing methods, speech acts, contextual conditions, and testing platforms have evolved over the decades, (2) provides examples of seven different types of pragmatics assessment items, and (3) makes suggestions that teachers can use in deciding what to include in their teaching and assessment of pragmatics competence.