This book contains a collection of papers presented at the SEAMEO RELC International Seminar, held April 18-20, 2005. The sixteen papers contained in this volume deal with various aspects of the field of learning and teaching oral communications skills. These include the theoretical background, practical applications and the assessment of oral communication. This book is divided into three sections. Section I, The Theoretical Background, presents: (1) English as a Lingua Franca: Past Empirical, Present Controversial, Future Uncertain (Jennifer Jenkins); (2) Developing Learner Oral Communication: Intercultural Perspective (Luciana); (3) Oral Communication and Intelligibility among ASEAN Speakers of English (Andy Kirkpatrick); (4) Linguistic Politeness and Its Implications for The Teaching of Oral Communication Competence (Nguyen Duc Hoat); and (5) Structuring Learning within the Flux of Communication: A Role for Constructive Repetition in Oral Language Pedagogy (Martin Bygate). Section II, Practical Applications, includes: (6) Oracy Development in Literacy--Privileged Learning Environments: Too Little, Too Late? (Christine Goh); (7) Getting Students to Speak? Experienced Teachers Have Their Ways (Koh Soo Ling); (8) Speaking to Learn (Scott Thornbury); (9) Exploring Our Voices: Teaching Oral Communication in the Nambian Context (Sarala Krishnamurthy); (10) Small Talk: The Passport to Internationalization (Arwuth Wajasath); and (11) Factors Affecting Indonesian Learners' Communicative Competence: A Socio-Cultural Account (Henny Herwati and Yohana Veniranda). Finally, Section III, Assessing Oral Communication, concludes the book with: (12) Teachers' Perceptions towards Oral Assessment and Their Implications for Teaching (Tunku Mohani Tunku Mohtar); (13) Scoring Rubrics for Speaking Assessment in the Secondary School EFL Classroom (Nur Mukminatien); (14) A New Dimension in Assessing Oral Communication in a Foreign Language Context (James Sims); (15) Benchmarking Oral Presentations in Universiti Teknologi MARA (Helen Lok-Chuah); and (16) Assessing Speaking in a "Workplace-Oriented" Academic Context (Jan Hamilton).