Towards Minimal Functional Competence: Characteristics of Interlanguage at the Intermediate High Level
Ewa
Golonka
On the ACTFL scale of language proficiency, the Advanced level
represents minimal functional proficiency,
in which a
speaker can function in the target language and become a participating
partner in the communication (ACTFL Proficiency
Guidelines, 1986). While functional competence in speaking is
the most frequently cited linguistic goal for studying Russian among
students in American universities (Brecht, Caemmerer and Walton,
1995), the transition from Intermediate High to Advanced level in
speaking is difficult to achieve within traditional learning
environment for English base-language learners of Russian. The
present study investigates a range of predictors of gain for the
Advanced level resulting from immersion study abroad, by providing a
detailed description of pre-program features of a group of learners
who had attained a pre-program speaking level of Intermediate High.
The study attempts to identify linguistic factors that may predict
transition into the Advanced level. Twenty four pre-recorded
Intermediate High Oral Proficiency Interviews (OPI) were transcribed,
coded, and analyzed by using Child Language Data Exchange System
(CHILDES). Areas of interest for coding were based on the components
of the widely accepted functional trisection (Higgs and Clifford, 1982):
function, content, and accuracy. The speech samples of pre-immersion
OPI tests were grouped according to those learners who crossed the
Advanced-level threshold on the post-immersion OPI (hereafter:
gainers) and those who did not (nullgainers), and this difference
provided the basis for prediction which learners would cross this
threshold, and which would not. In all the areas of interest:
vocabulary, grammar, fluency, error and discourse analyses, pragmatic
and sociolinguistic competence, gainers outperformed nullgainers.
Three variables were distinguished as the most powerful for
discriminating between groups of gainers and nullgainers: vocabulary,
fluency, and communication strategies. Results of the study are
likely to be of interest for researchers in the field of Second
Language Acquisition (SLA), Russian language instructors and those who
prepare them, and curriculum and program designers.