TY - JOUR ID - 1349 TI - Assessing Language Learners’ Knowledge of Speech Acts: A Test Validation Study JO - Issues in Language Teaching JA - ILT LA - en SN - 2322-3715 AU - Birjandi, Parviz AU - Soleimani, Mohammad Mehdi AD - Professor of Applied Linguistics, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran AD - Ph.D. Candidate, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Y1 - 2013 PY - 2013 VL - 2 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 26 KW - pragmatic competence KW - interlanguage pragmatics KW - test development KW - speech acts DO - N2 - Veryfew attempts have been made in the past to develop instruments to measure pragmatic knowledge of second language (L2) learners. The absence of such instruments in the literature of English language teaching (ELT) underscores the need for the researchers to develop new tests that are specifically designed to assess this crucial but less explored aspect of language learners’ (LLs) knowledge. In line with this objective, the present study was conducted to develop and validate four tests of pragmatic knowledge that measured LLs’ knowledge of speech acts. The following steps were taken in this study to develop the written discourse completion tests (WDCTs) and the multiple-choice discourse completion tests (MCDCTs) that respectively measured the test takers’ ability to produce and comprehend request speech act. During the “prototype step” the researchers identified the content and the number of items for each designated test battery. At the “test construction step” the sociolinguistic variables of power (P), social distance (D), and absolute rank of imposition (R) were inserted into the content of the test items. Finally, at the “validation step” the reliability of the tests was examined. The finding of the study showed that the constructed test batteries were sufficiently reliable and valid for measuring pragmatic knowledge of L2 learners. UR - https://ilt.atu.ac.ir/article_1349.html L1 - https://ilt.atu.ac.ir/article_1349_264867b59718034adbc2c7642035429b.pdf ER -