The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the test items in the speaking section of the College Scholastic Abilities Test validly measure the pragmatic competence of test-takers. This study also makes suggestions for the improvement of these...
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the test items in the speaking section of the College Scholastic Abilities Test validly measure the pragmatic competence of test-takers. This study also makes suggestions for the improvement of these items based on the analysis, so that they can better assess the learners' pragmatic competence in English. The analysis shows that the test items are rather limited in their ability to assess pragmatic competence. Specifically, the test items fail to provide sufficient pragmatic contexts, such as the social and psychological roles of interlocutors and the settings of the dialogues, which are typical of authentic discourses. The discourses are mostly of neutral formality, to the almost complete exclusion of colloquial and formal registers, lacking the diversity of registers observed in natural language use. Suggestions for the improvement of the test items in the speaking section are made, and sample test items are provided.