Recently, considerable attention has been devoted to oral proficiency testing, and a number of different types of oral tests have emerged. However, unlike tests of reading, writing, and listening, most of these oral tests have not been subjected to large scale validation studies.

Peter Groot, of the Institute of Applied Linguistics, Utrecht, Holland, has indicated interest in and support for a large scale convergent-divergent validation study of important types of oral proficiency tests. The 1979 TESOL Convention in Boston would provide an opportunity for experts to discuss major trends in oral proficiency testing and to develop guidelines for such a study.

The agenda of the working sessions would include the following: 1) a state-of-the-art-paper, 2) a paper on convergent-divergent validation procedures, 3) short summaries of research studies incorporating oral proficiency tests, 4) a survey of techniques for oral proficiency testing, 5) an examination of example tests in order to classify them and to select the most promising instruments in each category, and 6) development of a proposal for a validation study incorporating the selected tests and alternative measures.

Following the six working sessions, a general summary would be prepared and presented, and observers would be invited to participate in an open discussion.

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2. Canale, M. French as a second language: Ontario assessment instrument pool project.

3. Clark, J. Convergent-divergent test validation at Educational Testing Service.

4. Clifford, R. The "what" and "why" of convergent-divergent validation.

5. Davies, A. To be announced.

6. Groot, P. On the need for construct validation of oral proficiency tests.

7. Hinofotis, F., Bailey, K, and Stern, S. The development of a performance test of oral proficiency for foreign teaching assistants.

8. Lowe, P. Structure of the oral interview and content validity.

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15. Upshur, J. A sociolinguistic analysis of Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus": implications for oral proficiency testing.