A recently conducted survey has disclosed that during the past few years there has been a significant increase in the development of speaking tests. Examination of 100 speaking tests revealed many varieties and many considerations in preparing and using them. Among these are the purpose for its use, the background of the examinee, the criteria selected, and the scoring procedure. The study isolated over two dozen elicitation techniques, ranging from measures of conversational spontaneity to measurement of specific linguistic subskills. At one end of the spectrum are informal, open-ended techniques used in some interviews. Slightly more control is available in the pseudo-communicative variety, such as role play. Still more structured are connected discourse techniques, such as reading a prose passage aloud, and controlled responses, like those requiring description of a picture. A typical composite oral proficiency test for adults would incorporate several elicitation techniques and discrete scoring. It would be administered live, one-on-one, in about 10 minutes to a literate examinee. It is allowed that this composite test may not be ideal. Because there is such a large variety of oral tests in existence, the user can select or design an instrument suitable to his or her particular testing requirements. (Author/AMH)