Reviews research that sheds light on the comparability of Oral Proficiency Interview and the Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview. Suggestions are provided for further research. (16 references) (VWL)

Reports research using oral examiner verbal reports that attempts to gain insights into the rating process in the Cambridge First Certificate in English Speaking Test. Raters' verbal reports of the decision-making process were analyzed and heeded aspects of the test performances were identified, with a view to better understanding how test scores…

Reports results of variety of validity analyses involving American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview as it was administered to 59 learners of English and 60 learners of French. Concludes that ACTFL guidelines can be useful as an assessment tool and offer advantages that warrant serious consideration in the…

This report discusses a study on the use of modern media techniques in long-distance oral testing that preserve the possibility of interaction by using video teleconferencing. Two test administration modes, face-to-face and screen-to-screen, are compared in an experimental design. (10 references) (VWL)

Examines the widely held assumption that a language interview is a structured conversational exchange. Specifically, the structural organization of 20 audio- and videotaped oral-skills course placement interviews were analyzed for features of conversation and interviews by using conversation analysis techniques. (40 references) (VWL)

A feature shown to affect learners' performance on tests of spoken interaction is the gender of the person with whom the learner interacts. To test this hypothesis, 12 Japanese learners were interviewed, once by a man and once by a woman. Comparison of scores indicated that in all but one case the learners performed better when interviewed by a…

Focuses on the effects of changes to high-stakes tests on the performance of those who take them. These effects are explored within the specific context of the Hong Kong Advanced Supplementary (AE) "Use of English" (UE) oral examination. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a study investigating whether a field-specific oral proficiency test would be a better predictor of field-specific performance than a general purpose oral proficiency test. A theoretical discussion is presented on field-specific language testing and guidelines for the construction of oral proficiency tests in specific purpose contexts.…

Presents data from validation study of American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency (OPI). Distinctness of OPI ratings from scores generated by Test of English as a Foreign Language and one other examination is assessed on basis of comparisons among 70 sets of scores from students of English as Second Language who…

The findings from research on written and oral summarization are discussed under three headings: summarizers' strategies, improving summarizers' performance, and the assessment of summary quality. Objective measures of summary quality used by researchers are described, and ways these measures could be adapted for use in higher education assessment…

Looks at the large-scale experiments on the testing of oral proficiency in English, French, and German that have been carried out over the last five years in the Swedish gymnasium. Various kinds of tasks and different grading criteria have been used, and the practical problems of scheduling and of teacher training have been discussed. (nine…

Discusses the issue of oral communication tests through an account of an oral test administered to nearly 1,000 students at Yarmouk University Language Center. The ways in which the institution attempted to overcome problems in the oral test's feasibility, validity, and reliability are presented. (Author/CB)