Construction, administration, and validation of a test of oral language usage

We as teacher of English are faced with the task of preparing students for the world they will meet when they leave the classroom—a world that will judge them in part by their ability to manipulate the language to their advantage. And yet to measure the use of language, we rely almost exclusively on written measurements. It seems likely that students may easily learn to give the teacher the answer he wants on written tests of English usage. Oral tests are commercially available, but many are prohibitively expensive; others require hours of instruction before the teacher can consider himself qualified to administer the test; and still others include the measurement of so many varied objectives that they do not allow the teacher to pinpoint a particular language problem on which he may want to concentrate. Some oral tests have all of these drawback. It is hopes that a test of spoken English usage—one which directs itself to a specific language problem—can be constructed that will overcome the drawbacks mentioned above. And it is hoped that such a test will prove to be adaptable to classroom uses in much the same way that a written test would be; that is, it can be constructed by any classroom teacher. It is hoped that such a test can be proven valid. What form should a test take that is designed to measure spoken English usage and at the same time, is designed to be specific, usable, and readily adaptable to classroom use