Issues related to a national assessment of speaking and listening skills include the specification of the domain of communication competencies, the selection of measurement strategies, and the elimination of racial and ethnic bias. A project committee proposed that the domain of national assessment spans three dimensions: function (informing, controlling, sharing feelings, ritualizing, and imagining), perspective (speaking/expressing, listening/recognizing), and context (formal dyad, formal group, informal dyad, and informal group). The committee also developed strategies for the indirect measurement of speaking skills, the direct measurement of listening skills, and the direct measurement of speaking skills. A number of effective techniques for identifying items with minority bias were implemented, and more work in this area was recommended. (RL) Primary type of information provided by report: Procedures (Feasibility Study) (Conceptual).