is that "language and language ability are abstract theoretical entities" (Oller, Jr. 1987:42).

Because of this abstractness and of the high complexity of language, linguistic theories have flourished and withered often to resurface in modified attire not only as our knowledge of linguistic processes has increased but as our philosophical, social, and political trends have dictated. To go back to the mid 1970s only, tests in education and instruction have emphasized from discrete item tests to integrative tests (such as the cloze), from the viewpoints of structural linguists through those of psycholinguists to those of sociolinguists and communicative buffs.

Today, we still wonder about who should design, develop, and administer tests: the teacher, the school, the school board, or the commercial publisher? What kinds of tests are most profitable not only to the political, social, and administrative structures but to the learners? What purposes do tests s

In designing the format of all tests, the designer will heed Weir's admonition that "there is also evidence in the literature that the format of a task can unduly affect the performance of some candidates" (Weir 1988). Shades of McLuhan. Worse still, the very taking of a test may traumatically affect the performance of the testee who is afflicted with test anxiety. Does the student then get a Fail grade?

To test for reading comprehension teachers often resort to true-false questions or to the matching technique. They do so because they believe this is an easy way out of the intricate design of tests: True-False items seem easy to prepare and, at least for the beginning student, they demand less intellectual effort than the multiple-choice type of technique. Madsen (1983:88) points out, though, that "one problem with the true-false question is that the student might simply guess the right answer. If concerned about this, you can make a correction for guessing: Just subtract the nu