Quantifying L2 interactional competence

Abstract

The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) defines foreign language competence as communicative competence, emphasizing its interactional aspect. Nonetheless, L2 (second language) assessment often focuses on the quantification of grammar and lexical competence, neglecting interactional aspects, which are only subject to an impressionistic evaluation. With this exploratory study, we test a method for quantification and visualization of interaction management on L2 data. Our corpus includes 40 conversations both in L1 (first language) and L2 produced by Italian learners of German as L2. Results suggest that low levels of proficiency negatively affect the smoothness of the interactional flow, whereas the difference between L1 and L2 interactional patterns reduces with increasing L2 proficiency. Extracting reliable and testable metric, this method could represent a valid starting point to develop an instrument for a quantifiable assessment of interactional competence.