• Face-to-face or telephonic interview to determine comprehension and speaking levels
  • Conducted by two certified OPI raters -- 20-40 minutes long -
• OPI cycle
  • Warm-up, to include autobiography
  • Level checks, to assess ability to perform linguistic tasks at a base level
  • Level probes, to determine ability to perform linguistic tasks at the next higher base level
  • Wind down
• Appraisal factors considered at each level (not equally weighted)
  • Vocabulary
  • Grammar
  • Pronunciation
  • Fluency
  • Linguistic tasks
  • Socio-linguistic/cultural awareness
• Base levels 0-5
  • Level 0 - no functional proficiency
  • Level 1 - survival proficiency
    • Tasks require candidates to ask/answer questions, participate in short conversations (about themeslves, their families, and their backgrounds), and handle everyday "survival" situations
    • Demonstrated ability to create sentences (not just phrases or memorized dialogs) that are intelligible to native speakers used to dealing with non-native speakers
    • Comprehension of simple sentences at a slower than normal delivery rate with frequent repetition, rephrasing
  • Level 2 - limited working proficiency
    • Tasks require candidates to demonstrate the ability to fully participate in casual conversations about themselves and the world around them, to include:
      • Describing (in concrete terms)
      • Giving instructions/directions
      • Narrating in present, past, and future
      • Handling situations with a complication
    • Demonstrated ability to speak in "paragraphs," controlling basic sentence structure and exhibiting pronunciation intelligible to native speakers not used to dealing with internationals
    • Comprehension of basic everyday speech with only occasional slowing down, repetition, and rephrasing
  • Level 3 - general professional proficiency
    • Tasks require candidates to demonstrate the ability to converse in formal and informal situations, including:
      • Resolving problem situations
      • Dealing with unfamiliar topics/situations
      • Describing in detail
      • Providing abstract explanations
      • Supporting opinions
      • Hypothesizing
    • Demonstrated ability to use organized discourse incorporating a broad range of high- frequency abstract vocabulary and complex sentence structure with facility
    • Pronunciation and communication errors rarely interfere with a native speaker's understanding and listening comfort
    • Comprehension of everyday, technical and abstract discourse in a standard dialect
  • Level 4 - advanced professional proficiency
    • Tasks require candidates to demonstrate the ability to tailor language to a variety of audiences, both formal and informal, for the purpose of:
      • Counselling
      • Persuading
      • Negotiating
      • Interpreting
      • Representing both sides of an issue
    • Speech represents highly organized discourse, including extensive use of complex sentence structure and both high- and low-frequency abstract vocabulary
    • No patterns of pronunciation and communication errors
    • Comprehension of all standard and some non-standard dialects including common slang / technical jargon
  • Level 5 - functionally well-educated native proficiency
• Plus levels (0+, 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+)
  • Demonstrated inconsistent proficiency (60% of the time) at the next higher base level
• Advantages and drawbacks of the OPI
  • Standardized method of measuring actual proficiency in language skills required to function in life / job situations
  • Low risk of compromise
  • Costly in terms of training and staffing requirements
  • Reliability dependent on a human element, i.e. the competence/performance of raters
• Current OPI requirements at DLIELC
  • US Army: Officers - 2+ / 2; Enlisted - 1+ / 1
  • Basic Aviation Students: 2 / 1+
  • Advanced Aviation Students: 2 / 2 & 2+ / 2+
  • Instructor students: 2 / 2
  • Requirements (ranging from 1+ to 3) for specific courses set by follow-on training bases
    

Back to OPI Home