Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1. Overview of the Book -- Chapter 2. The Genesis and Evolution of the OPI System -- Chapter 3. A Critical Appraisal of the OPI -- Chapter 4. Theoretical Bases for Investigating the OPI Speech Event -- Chapter 5. A Discourse Analysis Study of the OPI -- Chapter 6. Native Speakers' Perceptions of the OPI Speech Event -- Chapter 7. A Prototypical Model of the OPI Communicative Speech Event -- Chapter 8. Communicative Competence versus Interactional Competence -- Chapter 9. The Practical Oral Language Ability: The Application of Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory to Language Testing -- Appendixes -- Bibliography -- Index.