Abstract
Abstract: This study focused on Japanese linguistic features that contribute to producing the paragraph‐length and extended connected discourse that is expected at the Advanced and Superior levels in ACTFL oral proficiency interviews (OPIs). From 15 Japanese OPIs at the Intermediate‐High through Superior levels, 3,062 predicates were identified. Frequent use of embedded syntactic constructions, such as sentence modifiers and embedded interrogative and quotative constructions (˜(t)te iu), contributed to the integration of more predicates, resulting in extended discourse at the Superior level. To link clauses, gerunds and adversative clausal particles were more prevalent than sentence‐initial connectives. Adversative clausal particles and quotative constructions played an important role in signaling the meaning of the utterance in relation to the entire discourse. A qualitative analysis revealed that appropriate use of cohesive and coherence devices affected the degree of cohesiveness and coherence of discourse. The implications for Japanese language pedagogy and OPI are significant.
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