The Comparability of Direct and Semi-direct Oral Proficiency Interviews in a Foreign Language Context : A Case Study with Advanced Korean Learners of English

Abstract

The comparability between oral proficiency interviews (OPI) and semidirect oral proficiency interviews (SOPI) has been an important issue since the advent of the SOPI as an alternative to the OPI. This study examines whether the two test modes can be considered to elicit comparable performance in a foreign language test context. 15 advanced Korean learners of English were given two oral proficiency tests consisting of a matched set of tasks: one under a simulated OPI and the other under a simulated SOPI. The resulting test scores and performance samples were compared. The results showed that the scores and the performance samples from the two test modes were highly comparable. This comparability is an encouraging result since the SOPI is more practical to administer than the OPI, especially in a foreign language context.