The article addresses theoretical issues and possible problems related to the assessment of phonemic awareness. A definition of phonemic awareness is offered and applied to the acquisition and self-regulation of verbal and written language. Included is an examination of several commercially available tests as well as tasks used in research…

Discusses the origins and uses of proficiency-based systems in government and education, an initial application of proficiency-based foreign language oral skills assessment in one corporate setting, and the wide range of potential applications of proficiency-based systems for business, industry, and the professions in general. (SED)

This article presents an analysis of Ordinate Corporation's PhonePass Spoken English Test-10. The company promotes this product as being a useful assessment tool for screening job candidates' ability in spoken English. In the real-life domain of the work environment, one of the primary target language use tasks involves extended production…

Due to the recent Federal redefinition of "basic skills," large scale assessments of speaking and listening proficiencies will proliferate. In planning assessment procedures, educators must be sensitive not only to psychometric validity, but also to pedagogical validity: the effects of testing on curricular content and instructional strategies.…

Examines the impact of the workshop in oral proficiency testing organized by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Illinois Foreign Language Teachers Association. The workshops were designed to train college professors to administer oral interviews to rate the level of oral proficiency of foreign language speakers. (SED)

To date, appropriate diagnostic instruments for preschool children have been insufficient to fill the demands. Since the majority of published test instruments for preschoolers address speech (verbal) development, the following discussion is limited to the problems and techniques of speech diagnosis. (PN)

Improving the quality of undergraduate speech communication education depends to a large extent on effectively measuring student achievement in college level communication skills. While formal tests are not as well developed for speaking skills as for other areas of the curriculum, they are available. The two used most frequently are the…

Experience and research on the appropriateness and reliability of various criteria used in oral language tests are discussed. It is concluded that global marking schemes, which are less detailed, may enable the scorer to better evaluate communicative effectiveness, which includes both linguistic and paralinguistic factors. (MSE)

This article considers the models and beliefs of language clinicians, as reflected by their choice of specific assessment instruments or measurement methods. Differences in construct and philosophy are demonstrated in a review of personality and vocational preference inventories and several subtests of sentence production. (DB)