; Canale & Swain, 1980b). The other, exemplified by the Test of English for Educational Purposes (Associated Examining Board, 1987; Weir, 1983), the Ontario Test of English as a Second Language (Wesche et al., 1987), and the international English Language Testing Service (e.g., Alderson, 1988b; Alderson, Foulkes, Clapham, & Ingram, 1990; Criper & Davies, 1988; Seaton, 1983) has grown out of the English for specific purposes tradition. While a number of lists of characteristics of communicative language tests has been proposed (e.g., Alderson, 1981a; Canale, 1984; Carroll, 1980; Harrison, 1983; Morrow, 1977, 1979), I will mention four characteristics that would appear to distinguish communicative language tests. First, such testscreate an“information gap,” requiring test takers to processcomplementary information through the use of multiple sources of input. Test takers, for example, might be required to perform a writing task that is based on input from both a short recorded lecture and a reading passage on the same topic. A second characteristic is that of task dependency, with tasks in one section of the test building upon the content of earlier sections, including the test taker’s answers to those sections. Third, communicative tests can be characterized by their integration of test tasks and content within a given domain of discourse. Finally, communicative tests attempt to measure a much broader range of language abilities— including knowledge of cohesion, functions, and英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】 sociolinguistic appropriateness—than did earlier tests, which tended to focus on the formal aspects of language—grammar, vocabulary, and pronun-ciation. A different approach to language testing that evolved during the 1980s is the adaptation of the FSI oral interview guidelines (Wilds, 1975) to the assessment of the oral language proficiency in contexts outside agencies of the U.S. government. This “AEI” (For American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages/ Educational Testing Service/ I nteragency Language Roundtable) approach to language assessment is based on a view of language proficiency as a unitary ability (Lowe, 1988), and thus diverges from the view that has emerged in language testing research and other areas of applied linguistics. This approach to oral language assessment has been criticized by both linguists and applied linguists, including language testers and language teachers,on a number of grounds (e. g., Alderson, 1981b; Bachman, 1988; Bachman & Savignon, 1986; Candlin, 1986; Kramsch, 1986; Lantolf & Frawley, 1985, 1988; Savignon, 1985). Nevertheless, the approach and ability levels defined have been widely accepted as a standard for assessing oral proficiency in a foreign language in the U.S. and have provided the basis for the development of “simulated oral proficiency inter-views” in various languages (e.g., Stansfield & Kenyon, 1988, 1989). In addition, the approach has been adapted to the assessment of EFL proficiency in other countries (e.g., I
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