Issues involved in teaching and assessing communicative competence are identified and applied to adolescent native English speakers with low levels of academic achievement. A distinction is drawn between transactional versus interactional speech, short versus long speaking turns, and spoken language influenced or not influenced by written language. A program is being funded to test the spoken English ability of 16-year-old students in the lower 30 percent of the ability range in Scotland's secondary school system. It is suggested that testing should focus on ability to use transactional language in long conversational turns. Traditionally, spoken language is assessed against a highly literate norm rather than the ability to convey the information. However, if the communication of information is accepted as a skill which should be taught and tested, the test must be constructed in a way which permits the skill to be demonstrated, as in a task involving the communication of essential information. An important aspect of communicating information is the ability to establish and maintain reference in a transactional task. (RW)