Interview #8; Language: Hindi; Interviewee: Shraddha; Level: Intermediate Mid

During the warm-up segment of the interview, when the testee is asked to introduce herself, it becomes clear that the testee is speaking at the basic sentence level with subject-verb and noun-adjective gender and number agreement errors, e.g., ‘I was born in Orissa’ (“Uriisaa meN janam huii thii”, where ‘birth’ is masculine ‘occurred’ is feminine), ‘I grew up in Shanghai’ (“shanghai meN baRaa huii”, where ‘I is feminine’, ‘grew up’ is masculine), “nayii shahar hai” (‘it is a new-fem. city-masc.’), ‘there are big buildings’ (“baRaa baRaa buildings hai”, where ‘big’ is singular masculine and ‘buildings’ is feminine plural).

The interviewer checks her level and she answers at the sentence level, which is a hallmark of the Intermediate level. Then, the tester probes further her proficiency ‘ceiling’ with an Advanced level question. She asks about the differences and similarities between Shanghai and New York City and the testee answers again in short isolated sentences.

The tester introduces a new topic – ‘what was interesting in India?’ (“bhaarat me aapko kyaa khaas chiizeN dilchasp lagiiN?”). The interviewee again makes agreement errors ‘he does not live in India’ (“vah bharat meN nahiiN rahtii hai”, where ‘he is masculine ‘lives’ is feminine). However, she shows some partial control over complex relative-correlative sentence structure ‘when we go, then we meet after many years…’ (“jab ham jaatii haiN, to bahut saloN ke baad miltii haiN…”), which is the indication of Advanced level control of complex syntax. Next, the interviewer further probes her level by eliciting the narration of a personal experience in India (“koi khaas anubhav huaa?”, “koii khaas ghaTnaa jiskee bare meN aap mujhe bataanaa chaaheNge”), which is an Advanced level probe. She is able to answer in connected sentences, but with some grammar roughness in terms inaccuracies in the use of the perfect tense and in Hindi mixed with English words, e.g., ‘we looked outside’ (“ham baahar dekhe”), where the ergative postposition –ne, required with the transitive verb in the perfect tense, is missing; ‘so all men wearing luungii were doing cheinge, so it was funny’ (“to sab mard luungii cheinge karte the, to vo bahut funny thaa”).
The interviewer then asks about the similarities and differences between the countries of China and India (“rehen sahen kii bhinntaa hai, farak”), which the speaker answers with the help of English at the basic sentence level, e.g. ‘there is a strong sense of family’ (“parivaar kii strong sense hai”), ‘people don’t go to temples’ (“logoN mandir nahiiN jaate haiN”)‘in India people are more welcoming’ (“indiaa meN log aur welcoming haiN”). Clearly, the interviewee does not speak in paragraphs, but does produce some connected sentences when the topic is very familiar and predictable.

The interviewer then further checks her level by asking her to narrate the story of a Hindi film. She narrates the story in simple sentences, mostly in the present habitual tense with some connectors (“dost hote haiN, pyaar hotaa hai, lekin…”) The interviewer then probes the ‘ceiling’, by asking about the differences in the Hindi and English movies (“aNgrezii kii filmeN kis tarah se alag hoti haiN hindi kii filmoN se”) and the answer is formulated in simple sentences and using English words, e.g. ‘there is no song and dance’ (“naach-gaanaa nahiiN hai” ), .‘English is very realistic, Hindi is like fantasy’ (“Angrezii kii filmeN bahut realistic hai, hindii fentazii kii tarah”).

By now the interviewer has established that the testee is comfortable performing basic functions at the Intermediate level, but since she is also showing some connected language, the interviewer attempts to elicit more cohesive speech by asking her about festivals and then asking her to describe how the festival Diwali is celebrated. The answer again is produced in two-three simple sentences in isolation.

The interviewer then pulls out an orange card to make sure that the interviewee is not an Advanced level speaker or to establish the ceiling. The elicited output, which requires handling some complication in the situation, confirms that she is actually an Intermediate level speaker, since she is unable to handle the situation adequately and interacts with some grammar inaccuracies. However, she demonstrates signs of solid control of simple sentence structure and even shows limited use of simple connectors and cohesion markers. In the wind-down segment, the interviewer asks about her future plans and activities in order to check her familiarity with the three time frames, She showed partial control over future (“jaauuNgii”, “jaaeNge”).

The interviewee is at the Intermediate Mid level, because she can consistently create with the language at the simple sentence level and obtain simple information to satisfy basic needs. She can talk mostly about daily routine and other familiar topics only in informal contexts and is able to handle successfully a variety of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations. She makes some grammatical errors and needs a sympathetic interlocutor to be understood. She strings isolated sentences and at times uses connectors, which, typically, Intermediate Mid level speakers can do.

Listen to the rationale in Hindi: