The speaking ability of 40 Finnish college students of English as a Second Language was assessed in tests of interactional and transactional language function. In the interactional test, the learner introduced a topic of his choice and attempted to converse with two native speakers of English. In the transactional test, the learner watched a video clip from a television crime drama and produced a spoken narrative about what happens in the film. The tests were graded by both English and Finnish native-speaking teachers. Substantial differences were found in grades given to the same students by the different examiners. Based on these findings, it is argued that pragmatic breakdown has occurred between the first and second languages, and that it is sociopragmatic features, which stem from culture-specific perceptions of what constitutes appropriate linguistic behavior, that are the cause. How such different conventions interfere with understanding the intentions of a foreign language speaker is discussed. (MSE)