Abstract
Testing of second language pragmatics is an area of growing research interest, and a number of tests have been developed, though none are as yet in operational use. Three broad generations of tests exist, which are primarily differentiated by their target construct. The earliest types of pragmatics tests focused on speech acts, and assessed learners’ ability to produce and recognize felicitous speech acts. From that tradition grew a multi-construct approach, which not only considered speech acts but also other aspects of pragmatic competence, such as comprehension of implicature and recognition of routine formulae. While both traditions relied primarily on written, multi-item tests, the most recent approach foregrounds elicitation of spoken performance by means of role plays and elicited conversation, and assesses learners’ interactional competence, i. e., their ability to successfully conduct extended interactions. All three traditions have been fruitful but testing of pragmatics continues to struggle with practicality, which is a major reason for its lack of integration in large, commercial tests. Further directions for future research include assessment of languages other than English and strengthening the Extrapolation inference in an argument-based validity framework.
