Mapping of Interactional Competencies in the German Pair Speaking Test of B1 Level Students

Abstract

This research is intended to map the communicative competence of students as an effort to project their level of readiness to face the German language international exam on interactive oral communication skills (interactional competence) on the level B1 pair dialogue test. Due to the institution that has the official authority to carry out international standard German communicative competency exams conducts assessments based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the types of tests and scoring rubrics in this study were adopted from the CEFR. The test instrument used is a type of paired dialogue test level B1. The test is to evaluate students' ability in discussing and planning activities around the themes of everyday life. The research data corpus included 14 conversations in pair dialogues, which were carried out by seven pairs of PSSJ students and seven pairs of PSPBJ students at Universitas Negeri Surabaya. Data collection and analysis was carried out using descriptive qualitative methods. Based on the analysis of this study, a map of student communicative competence was produced as follows: Interactional competence 4 pairs of test takers were able to complete tasks with moderate results. They have quite good knowledge and understanding of linguistic aspects, including the domains of syntax, morphology, and phonology. However, it is still weak in the interactional competencies in topic management and task management. The remaining three pairs were not competent enough to perform discussions in level B1 German.