Assessing Pragmatic Skills in Speech Act Production and Perception

This chapter offers an overview of the research on the assessment of pragmatic skills among L2 speakers, focusing on speech act production and reception. The main characteristics of the key variables involved in the assessment process are also outlined. These include: language users whose pragmatic skills are assessed; raters assessing language users' discourse; discursive phenomena being assessed; approaches adopted for collecting and assessing discursive data; and the criteria used as the standards for assessment. The overall aim of this chapter is to explore how inclusive the assessment of language use in its scope, methods and social relevance. The major trends challenges involved in pragmatic skills assessment practices are identified, implications are drawn from the findings, and suggestions for future research are offered.