Proficiency at the lexis–grammar interface: Comparing oral versus written French exam tasks

This study investigates whether re-thinking the separation of lexis and grammar in language testing could lead to more valid inferences about proficiency across modes. As argued by Römer, typical scoring rubrics ignore important information encoded at lexis–grammar interface, particular how co-selection lexical grammatical features is mediated communicative function. especially evident when assessing oral versus written exam tasks, where modality a task may intersect with register-induced variation linguistic output. article presents results an empirical which we measured diversity sophistication four-word bundles extracted from corpus French exams. Analysis revealed that noun-based was significant predictor scores verb-based both modes, suggesting function as well constraints online planning effect lexicogrammatical phenomena on scores. Importantly, measures were better predictors than solely lexical-based measures, speaks potential utility considering competence rubrics.