Assessing Oral Skills of Pre-Tertiary Students: The Nature of the Communicative Act Swee Heng Chan Bee Eng Wong University Putra Malaysia Abstract The Malaysian University English Test (MUET) was recently introduced to gauge English proficiency of students entering Malaysian universities. This exam arose as a result of a gap between the years of exposure to learning of the language and preparatory years prior to entering university. The test aims at preparing pre-university students’ competency in the four language skills. Among the components of the exam is a test of oral skills, claimed very often as the most desirable proficiency. Given this premium, there exists a need for comprehensive methods of assessment accurately establishing or describing levels of proficiency attained by the students. This paper investigates test impact in the form of students’ response to the test of speaking and also analyses the test design as a communicative test of oral skills. Responses are partial indicators of test validity and offer information about related issues on test usefulness. The problems and concerns are noted in test design to facilitate improvement. Findings would be relevant for classroom practitioners, especially in test material preparation as a move towards achieving reliability and validity of a communicative test. Key words: MUET (Malaysian University English Test), Communicative Test, Methods of assessment, Language Proficiency INTRODUCTION In Malaysia, competence in English among learners has been on the decline since a change in language policy in which the language of instruction in schools was changed from that of English to Malay (the official language) in 1970. The policy amendment was a reaction to the British colonial dominance in Malaysia, which lasted for more than 200 years. To grasp the Malaysian English language dilemma, certain historical perspectives are in order. Similar to many other ‘new’ world countries, Malaysia experienced a period of colonization. As of the eighteenth century, the British established their presence in the country; among the many natural ‘imports’ was their language. Schools established as part of the educational effort by the British accommodated existing cultures of different races, principally Malay, Chinese and Indian. The British saw a need to accommodate sentiments related to mother tongue use. As a result, vernacular schools sprang up side by side with government and government-aided schools established by missionaries and the colonial government.