Use of games in the second language classroom to assess class participation and development of oral skills is discussed. Difficulties in assessing oral second language skills are outlined, and a central issue is identified: the discrepancy between a syllabus in which class participation is required and students unwilling to participate due to lack of motivation or anxiety about speaking in class. It is argued that peer assessment, used carefully, can be an effective method of evaluating student progress. Classroom games are proposed as a technique for motivating participation, promoting creativity, and testing language skills in a meaningful context. Such tests can be integrative in that they require learners to make connections between discrete points of language within a specific communicative context. An activity using the board game "Outburst" to test both vocabulary and grammatical structures while providing feedback to learners is described. Contains 16 references. (MSE)