Interpersonal Communication: Speaking and Interaction
The interpersonal domain tests spontaneous two-way interaction: role-plays and simulated exchanges scored for comprehensibility, cultural appropriateness, and language control. You must initiate, sustain, and repair a conversation - not deliver a memorized monologue.
Core rules
- Choose the address form first.
vouswith strangers, teachers, officials, and most new adult contacts;tuwith peers, family, and children. Do not switch without an invitation (On peut se tutoyer ?). - Match the speech act. Requests take conditional softening (
Pourriez-vous…,J'aimerais…); refusals need a reason plus an alternative; apologies need a repair or an offer. - Circumlocute instead of lapsing into English:
C'est un objet qui sert à…,la personne dont je parle…,c'est quand on…. - Use repair strategies:
Comment dire… ?,Vous pouvez répéter, s'il vous plaît ?,Vous voulez dire que… ? - Pragmatic formulas differ from English: leave-taking includes
Bonne journée; a compliment is usually downplayed (C'est gentil, merci).
Worked example
Prompt: decline a friend's dinner invitation and suggest another time.
Model: « Merci beaucoup pour ton invitation, mais je ne pourrai malheureusement pas venir samedi - j'ai déjà quelque chose de prévu. On se voit la semaine prochaine ? »
Reasoning: thanks → softened refusal (future je ne pourrai pas + malheureusement) → brief reason → alternative. ton is correct because the speaker treats the person as a friend; vous here would sound cold or ironic.
Traps
Translating English politeness word for word (Je refuse, or a bare Non, merci with no follow-up) reads as blunt; using tu with an examiner playing a professor; explaining so long that you lose the floor; falling silent instead of using a repair phrase; forgetting the follow-up question that keeps the exchange alive.