Assessing speaking is difficultAssessing speaking is difficult. For many teacher-testers it is probably the most difficult of all language skills to assess accurately. There are a number of reasons for this. A speaking test involves a candidate in "live" performance which may be a cause of test-compromising anxiety; examiners, even if experienced, can find it hard to combine the role of facilitator, which is to encourage the candidate’s best performance, with that of assessor, which involves maintaining a critical distance from the candidate; and the nature of speech itself - fleeting and often highly forgettable, especially for examiners coming to the end of a working day - means that assessments have to be made quickly.