A discussion of oral language testing looks at the role of student attitudes, student and interviewer gender, and interviewer social status in the reliability of student assessments. Three small-scale studies investigating these factors are described. The first two involved only Arab students. In the first, it was found that students (all male) were generally given higher ratings by male interviewers. In the second, slightly larger study, both male and female students were rated higher by male interviewers. The third study's subjects were of varied cultural backgrounds, and an attempt was made to manipulate the students' perceptions of the relative status (high or neutral) of the interviewer. Preliminary results of this study suggest a similar, although less strong, tendency toward higher rating by male interviewers and, more surprising, toward higher ratings when the interviewer is not presented as high-status. Implications of such variables as possible predictors of performance are considered. (MSE)