Are test takers able to engage in global tasks like asking questions, narrating, describing, persuading or supporting opinions, for example?
OPI testers and raters are certified via a rigorous certification process and are required to participate in quality assurance activities such as annual calibration events, virtual office hours, benchmarking activities, and other focused rater readiness activities.
Official ACTFL OPIs are currently available in the following languages (but are subject to change): Afrikaans, Akan-Twi, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Baluchi, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cambodian, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chavacano, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Egyptian, English, French, Georgian, German, Greek (Modern), Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong/Mong, Hungarian, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kazakh, Kashmiri, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Levantine, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marshallese, Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian Farsi, Polish, Portuguese Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian Croatian, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tajik, Tamil, Tausug, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Wolof, Wu and Yoruba. The interview is double rated and an Official ACTFL Oral proficiency Certificate stating the candidate’s proficiency level is issued. The speaker’s performance is compared to the criteria outlined in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 - Speaking or the Interagency Language Roundtable Language Skill Level Descriptors – Speaking. The OPI is a criterion referenced asessment. Like any conversation, there is an interactive negotiation of meaning between the 2 participants-the tester and the test taker. The tester will adjust their approach to the OPI based on the evidence of proficiency they are able to identify in the test taker’s performance. It is interactive and speaker centered which means that each OPI is a unique experience. The OPI is a 20-30 minute one-on-one interview between a certified ACTFL tester and an examinee. It assesses spontaneous unrehearsed language. The OPI is proficiency-based. It assesses the ability to use language effectively and appropriately in real-life situations. The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) is a valid and reliable means of assessing how well a person speaks a language.