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OPI Tester Interview Review Grid
Spanish
IVR # 130833
Rating: IM
T
Tasks
Warm-Up/
Gathering
information/checking understanding
Gathering
information/checking understanding
Gathering
information/checking understanding
Create with the
language
Level
of task
N/I/A/S
At level Response?
Topic
Questions
Yes
Partially
No
Evidence/Examples
N
University
¿Ud. está en New Paltz?
X
Speaker answers and adds some basic
information, sentence level, problem with
verb formulation (faulty stress and/or wrong
person marker—asistió? for asisto)
N
Studies
¿En qué año está? ¿Está en su
año final de estudios?
X
Speaker answers affirmatively.
N
University
Hábleme de la universidad.
¿Cómo se llama?
X
Speaker provides name.
I
University location
¿Dónde está New Paltz?
X
Speaker provides location, sentence level.
One sentence response.
Facilitating
question/Identifying
motivating topics
Checking
understanding
I
Weather/Location
¿Allí es donde ha nevado
tanto? […] ¿Ud. vive donde hay
mucha nieve?
X
N
Location
¿A cuánta distancia queda
Buffalo?
X
Checking
understanding
N
Weather
Pero… hace mucho frío donde
está Ud. ahora, ¿no?
X
Create with the
language
I
Community
Hábleme de New Paltz. ¿Cómo
es esa ciudad?
X
Create with the
language
I
Community
¿Hay algún inconveniente de
vivir allí?
X
Two-sentence reply. Speaker is creating
with the language.
X
Delivery requires a sympathetic listener.
Speaker responds in sentences, some
rudiment of paragraph (use of connector
debido a eso)
Misunderstanding. After repetition, speaker
repairs conversation and answers the
question.
Speaker replies in one sentence,
recombining (almost repeating) what she
heard from the tester.
Speaker answers in sentences, some
general description. Several gender
problems. Delivery requires a sympathetic
listener.
Create with the
language
I
University
¿Y la universidad? ¿Cómo es
esa universidad?
Create with the
language
I
University life
¿Y qué hace Ud. con la policía?
X
Speaker is creating with the language.
Speaks in sentences.
Classes.
Cuénteme de sus estudios.
X
Speaker creates with the language. Some
accuracy problems in basic structures (soy
Create with the
language
I
en las clases de…; un clase).
Checking
understanding/
building confidence
N
Classes
Cuántos créditos son, en total?
X
Speaker provides requested information.
Identifying
motivating topics
N
Work
¿Y tiene un trabajo también?
X
Speaker responds and adds some
information. She is creating with the
language.
Creating with the
language
I
Work
Hábleme un poco de ese
trabajo que antes tenía
X
Two-sentence reply.
Description
A
Work
¿Y cómo es el restaurante?
Produce list
N
Dishes
¿Y cuáles son los platos
especiales que sirven ahí?
X
As an Advanced level task, response is not
at level. The speaker creates with the
language, produces some sentences and
some fragments of sentences (La gente y la
empleadores muy interesante—no verb).
X
Speaker produces a (short) list of dishes.
Delivery requires a sympathetic listener.
Create with the
language
I
Pastimes
¿Qué le gusta hacer para
divertirse?
X
Speaker creates with the language, talks
about pastimes in sentences. Delivery
requires a sympathetic interlocutor. Speaker
is able to repair the exchange by explaining
the meaning of “oldies.”
Identifying
motivating topics
N
Travel
¿Y Ud. ha tenido la experiencia
de viajar a otro país?
X
Speaker produces some sentences about
Spain.
Response at Intermediate level: the speaker
creates with the language, produces
sentences to describe and contrast some
generic, isolated aspects of life in both
countries. Noticeable problems of accuracy
in basic structures (Las personas son
simpática y generosa; los ciudades son
nuevos)
A
Life in Spain and in
the USA
Cuénteme algunas diferencias
entre la vida allá, en España, y
la vida aquí, en EE.UU., según
su perspectiva.
Create with the
language
I
Toledo
Y le interesó mucho Toledo,
¿verdad? ¿Por qué?
X
Some sentences to provide a generic,
simple description of Toledo.
Facilitating
question/Identifying
motivating topics
N
Study abroad
¿Y Ud. estaba estudiando en
España?
X
A one-sentence response.
Describe and
contrast
X
Past narration
A
An experience in
Spain
Cuénteme de esa experiencia.
¿Vivió con una familia o…?
X
Question does not generate a past
narration. A three-sentence response with
unsuccessful use of structure to convey
meaning (Hace dos semanas que nosotros
vivimos en Toledo y hace dos semanas que
vivíamos en Sevilla).
Past narration
A
An experience in
Spain
Cuénteme alguna experiencia
que Ud. tuvo allí… algo
inesperado.
X
No past narration. Some sentences, some
simple description, accuracy problems
Past narration
A
An experience in
Spain
Facilitating
question/Follow up
A
An experience in
Spain
¿Y me puede contar algo que
ocurrió? ¿Algún evento
inesperado o sorprendente o
gracioso o tal vez algo
frustrante?
¿Y había alguien allí
ayudándola?
Past narration
A
An experience in
Spain
Pues cuénteme exactamente lo
que pasó. Entró con su amiga,
¿verdad?
Past narration
A
An experience in
Spain
¿Y alguna vez tuvo alguna
dificultad Ud. o alguien en el
grupo […]?
N/A
An experience in
Spain
¿Cuánto tiempo tuvieron que
esperar?
A
An experience in
Spain
¿Cómo reaccionaron los otros
estudiantes?
Facilitating
question/Encouraging narration
Past narration
X
Some sentences, some use of past tense,
no narration, lots of accuracy problems (yo
nunca encontró; necesito tratando todos los
zapatos para encontré).
X
One-sentence reply in present tense.
X
X
N/A
N/A
N/A
X
Some narration in the past, some use of
past tense. Wrong person markers,
accuracy problems, but speaker is able to
stay in the past most of the time. She
resorts to the present on one occasion (trae
los zapatos) but is able to stay in the past
most of the time. Good sequencing of
actions in the past, but text form is hardly a
paragraph. There is some very rudimentary
sense of paragraph (Cuando…) but the text
is more a series of sentences than a
paragraph. Basic information of the “story”
is missing (i.e. the tester has to ask if she
ended up buying the shoes)
No narration, a series of sentences in the
present, infinitive, some past tense. Lots of
person marker problems that interfere with
understanding of the incident.
Speaker responds.
No additional narration.
Speaker adds information but unsuccessful
use of verb tenses interfere with meaning.
Only a very sympathetic listener can
decipher meaning and time frames.
No past narration. Some sentences, some
simple description, but no paragraph, no
story.
Facilitating
question/Identifying
motivating topics
N
Teaching
¿Ha tenido al experiencia de
estar en un salón de clases con
estudiantes ya?
Past narration
A
First teaching
experience
Cuénteme de su primer
encuentro con los estudiantes.
Cuénteme de un problema que
tuvo Ud. o tal vez un problema
que tuvo el maestro o la
maestra. Quisiera saber algo
sobre un incidente, algo que
ocurrió con un estudiante un
poco frustrante.
X
Attempt at narrating but the speaker resorts
to the present (Hay un estudiante; presta
atención). Basic details of the story are
missing.
X
X
Past narration
A
A teaching
experience
Past narration
A
A teaching
experience
¿Y qué hizo la maestra?
X
One sentence response in the present.
Past narration
A
A teaching
experience
¿Y qué pasó después?
X
Speaker tries to end the “story” but uses the
present and the infinitive intermingled with
some past tense. No paragraph, problems
with accuracy and lexical control. Only a
very sympathetic listener can understand
what happened.
Account of accident is done at a very basic
Intermediate level. Most of the “narration” is
in the present, with lots of accuracy
problems, wrong verb formulations, and
wrong person markers. Speaker cannot
deal effectively with an unanticipated
complication. She would need a very
sympathetic listener to decipher meaning
and understand the accident.
Role-play
A
A car accident
You borrowed a friend’s car and
had a slight accident. Call him.
Asking questions
I
Various
Quiero que Ud. me haga a mí
algunas preguntas
Speaker asks several questions with good
sense of structure and accuracy.
Various
¿Y Ud.? ¿Qué prefiere Ud.?
¿Cuáles son sus planes para el
resto del día? ¿Cuándo se
gradúa?
Speaker answers, creating with the
language.
Wind-down
X
OPI Rating Rationale
Spanish
IVR # 130833
Rating: IM
This OPI is rated IM because:
Speaker can create with the language. She can talk about a variety of topics
necessary for survival in a Spanish-speaking context, such as community, self,
studies, work, housing, and plans.
Speaker functions mainly reactively; that is, needs an active interlocutor who
carries the conversation.
Speaker needs a sympathetic listener used to dealing with non-natives.
Speaker communicates in phrases (sometimes isolated sentences, sometimes
strings of sentences). Very rarely does she produce rudiments of paragraphs (i.e.
when talking about experience in the shoe store in Spain). Accuracy is
appropriate for the level. Inaccuracies often occur in pronunciation (faulty stress,
incorrect sounds, definite L1 interference), grammar and syntax (gender/number
agreement, wrong verb forms, conjugations, and person markers) but she is able
to communicate the message.
Speaker can ask questions.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
It is NOT rated IH because:
Speaker does not function at Advanced level most of the time. She consistently
resorts to the present and the infinitive when trying to provide an account in the
past. Even though she can produce discourse about present and future, she
does not produce narration in any time frame.
Speaker does not communicate in paragraphs most of the time. Her text type is
clearly sentences and strings of sentences.
Her delivery is not comprehensible to an interlocutor not accustomed to dealing
with non-native speakers most of the time. She definitely needs a sympathetic
listener.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
It is NOT rated IL because:
The speaker’s utterances are not filled with hesitancy, inaccuracies, and selfcorrection. There are clear problems of grammar and syntax, but she has a clear
sense of sentence discourse and can organize her speech to convey meaning in
this text type. When misunderstandings occur, she is able to repair the
conversation most of the time.
Even though she definitely needs an interlocutor who takes on the main
responsibility of the exchanges, she goes beyond a one-sentence answer and
generally provides more personal information covering self, school, interests,
likes, and dislikes. She goes beyond what she hears from the interlocutor.
The speaker can be understood by a sympathetic listener despite L1 interference
in pronunciation.