A handbook designed to acquaint college and university language departments with recent developments in oral proficiency testing gives an overview of the rationale, development, procedures, and implications of oral proficiency evaluation. The discussion is placed in the context of college and university language teaching. An overview section defines oral proficiency testing, looks at its importance in the academic setting, and outlines recent developments. A second section describes the oral proficiency evaluation process as outlined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The third section describes the academic uses of the ACTFL/ETS process, and the fourth section discusses the process' implications for curriculum development, specific courses, teaching techniques, and testing the other skills. The handbook also reports the results of a study concerning the feasibility of incorporating oral proficiency testing in college-level foreign language courses. The oral proficiency scales developed by the Interagency Language Roundtable and by ACTFL/ETS are appended. (MSE)