Looking for participants who are interested in free Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Practice Test

[AprilZhu]

Da jia hao,

 

I am writing to let you know that I am currently offering free ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) OPI(Oral Proficiency Interview) practice opportunities. As a college faculty member in Chinese, I am in the process of getting my ACTFL OPI Tester Certification. If you are not familiar with OPI, here is a brief description directly quoted from ACTFL Testing Office: 

 

OPI: The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview, or OPI, is a live 20-30 minute conversation, taking place over the phone, between a trained, certified ACTFL tester and the candidate. It is a valid and reliable test that measures how well a person speaks a language. The procedure is standardized in order to assess global speaking ability, measuring language production holistically by determining patterns of strengths and weaknesses.

 

At the end of the OPI practice test, a rating on your oral proficiency level will be provided following the ACTFL testing protocol and professional standards. Please note that the given rating is neither an advisory rating nor an official rating. If you need an official ACTFL OPI rating, your rating needs to be blindly double rated by an ACTFL Certified Tester under the supervision of the ACTFL Testing Office. Notice only ACTFL, through the ACTFL Testing Office, may issue an Official ACTFL OPI Rating and Certificate. Nevertheless, this practice test will provide you a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with the OPI procedure and practice your spoken Chinese with a native speaker. Also, at the end of the practice interview, I will share my feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of your Chinese and provide my suggestions and advice.

 

If you are interested in taking this OPI practice test, please feel free to contact me. 

 

Best regards,

April Zhu

 

 

 

[戴 睿]

April,

I would love to participate in a practice OPI with you.

I am in England, and was wondering if there might be an opportunity to do it over skype rather than over the phone.

I've been studying Chinese for about 11 months now, and would love some feedback on how I could continue progressing!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

-戴睿

[li3wei1]

Me too, also in the UK. Tried to PM you but it didn't work.

[roddy]

Regular members should be able to PM April now. New members might not be, post in here instead. 

[anna_c]

Hi April. I'm in China now but I'd love to be tested. I'm beginning graduate school next semester and I have to take the ACTFL.

Hoping to hear from you.

[AprilZhu]

Hi Anna,

 

Thank you for your interest in taking the practice OPI with me. Since you are currently in China and I am in the US, we could take the OPI through Skype. Again, it will take no more than 30 minutes for the test. And we could schedule a follow-up meeting if you would like to hear some feedback and suggestions on your Chinese speaking skills. 

 

Also, I am writing to request your permission of me recording our interview. The audio recording of our test will be used as part of my OPI Tester certification application. 

 

Please let me know your preferred time range to take the test. We have 13 hour time difference. I am using the central time (CST) in the US. 

 

Look forward to hearing from you!

 

Best,

April 

[anna_c]

Hi April,

I teach this afternoon but I'm free this evening or tomorrow morning. I would definitely appreciate a follow up meeting after the interview. My graduate program requires a certain level that I haven't met yet and I want to see how much farther I have to go. So any tips would be greatly appreciated! As long as this score isn't official or anything, I don't mind you recording it- as long as you don't laugh at my horrible Chinese when you listen to it with your colleagues! ;p

Can't wait to talk with you!

Anna

[AprilZhu]

Hi Anna,

 

Sorry for the delay. I guess I missed the possible OPI practice test time you suggested. Please rest assured that this is only a practice OPI and the audio recording will only be used for my OPI tester certification application and maybe in some future research. I have been interviewing people at a wide range of their speaking proficiency level, from novice to superior. So please do not worry about it and take it as a 15 to 30 min (the most) live conversation in Chinese. But it will give you a good idea of where you are at your Chinese study. Then we can schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss places of your strengths and weaknesses. Could you send me the time slots that work best for you? 

 

Xie Xie,

April

[anna_c]

It's no problem. This is kind of inconvenient as we keep missing each other, so do you have 微信? My wechat name is annac0804.

[AprilZhu]

Yes, I have wechat and already added you to my contact. Looking forward to speaking with you!

 

April

[roddy]

Was anyone able to do the interview with April? How was it?

[Nathan Mao]

I did the interview.

It was great!

She made it go very smoothly, made sure I was fully prepared for the conversation.

 

It is extremely similar to the oral portion of the Department of Defense's Defense Language Proficiency Test, although it isn't directly equivalent.

April is an excellent evaluator. The feedback she provided was insightful and accurate, and absolutely helped me to identify where my weak points are and how to strengthen those weak points.

 

I highly recommend anyone and everyone to participate in this offer for as long as April is willing.

[AprilZhu]

Thank you for your concern, Roddy, And thank you for your participation and recommendation, Nathan. I am just done with my teaching and actually plan to repost my recruiting message to find more participants. So if anyone that you know who are interested in taking the Practice OPI, I would be very appreciative if you could forward the message. 

[ironlady]

I wouldn't mind doing one, and I have a couple of students who might be interested...that might give you more of a spread of levels, if that's something that would interest you.

[Wang7]

Hello, folks;

Does any know if advanced beginners can participate in this interview?

 

PS: Nathan, you rock!

[roddy]

Long time no see, Ironlady, what brought you back onto the site?

[smcullen]

I would be happy to do an interview, April.  send me a message whenever it is convenient.

[DentonXu]

Hi April,

 

I am a Chinese heritage speaker who would appreciate the opportunity to participate in the interview. I am considering applying for a graduate program that requires the OPI and would like to see if I am eligible. 

 

Thank you,

Denton

[AprilZhu]

Hello Denton,

 

Since this is just a Practice OPI, so you are more than welcome to participate. I will be leaving later this afternoon till this Sunday for a short trip. Anytime after would work. Just let me know when it works best for you to have the test. We could do it via skype. 

 

Thank you,

April

[frank3]

Hello April,

 

I am interested in participation in a Practice OPI. Have you any times after July 9?

 

Thank you,

 

Frank