Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of oral examinations of advanced degree candidates. Looks at examiners' attitudes and the kinds of questions which should be asked. Suggests that a fair oral examination ought to include factual as well as nonfactual questions and argues that many factual questions can be justified. (SED)

Ten colleges and universities and the Educational Testing Service participated in a project that involved testing the Foreign Service Institute's French and Spanish oral proficiency test for possible academic applicability. (AM)

To date, little work has been done to ensure limited English proficient (LEP) students are accurately assessed on a large scale. The purpose of this guide is to help scorers in high volume situations to be able to effectively evaluate the open-ended responses of this population. Section one of this guide presents a brief overview of the State…

This paper aims to provide practical advice for creating a placement test for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) or English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) instruction. Three forms of concrete assistance are provided: a detailed literature review; detailed steps focusing on the creation of placement tests; and a set of recommendations focusing on…