The development of extended turns and storytelling in the Japanese oral proficiency interview

Abstract

The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines — Speaking and the oral proficiency interview (OPI) have had a long-standing impact on foreign language pedagogies in the United States. The Guidelines have been widely adopted as a curriculum benchmark in foreign language programs in colleges and secondary schools, and the ACTFL OPI, which measures foreign language speaking proficiency based on the criteria described in the Guidelines, has been used for various assessment purposes, such as program evaluation and accreditation, entrance and exit requirement, placement test, and teacher certification (Chambless, 2012; Houston, 2005; Kagan & Friedman, 2003; Kondo-Brown, 2012; Rifkin, 2003; Wetzel & Watanabe, 1998). Today, the Guidelines and the OPI have considerable influence not only on how teachers and professionals evaluate L2 speakers’ oral proficiency, but also on how foreign language programs are developed, implemented, evaluated, and revised. As such, it is the responsibility of ACTFL and the users of the Guidelines to examine and assure the adequacy of level descriptions in the Guidelines and the quality of the OPI.