Accommodation in oral interviews between foreign language learners and teachers who are not native speakers

Previous research shows evidence of discourse accommodation by native speak ers in oral interviews. This is seen as essential to their validity. The re search described here examines whether non-native speakers also adjust thei r language to the proficiency of interviewers. Interviews of 34 sixteen-yea r-old learners of French with two non-native teachers were analysed. Measur es of the students' French were related to indices of the teachers' languag e. Multiple regressions suggest that accommodation to the proficiency of in dividual students does take place, but that some aspects of the teachers. l anguage are grossly tuned to the general proficiency of students in their c lass rather than finely tuned to individuals.