Crosscultural pragmatics and the testing of communicative competence

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of testing for communicative competence in second language acquisition, focusing specifically on the learner's ability to use the appropriate sociocultural rules of speaking. The main notion underlying the arguments presented here is the one forwarded by Shohamy (1984) that the construction of quality language tests necessitates the integration of knowledge from the domain of language learning with knowledge from the domain of measurement theories. The authors discuss a whole range of data collection instruments which serve the sociolinguistic researcher, in view of their features of authenticity and crosscultural comparability. Such instruments are further discussed in light of their suitability for language testing purposes.