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f research in language testing can be useful for both researchers and practitioners in language learning and language teaching. Specifically, I believe it provides a basis for both conceptualizing second language abilities whose acquisition is the object of considerable research and instructional effort, and for designing language tests for use both in instructional settings and for research in language learning and language teaching. Second, I will describe an approach to characterize the authenticity of a language task which I believe can help us to better understand the nature of the tasks we set, either for students in instructional programs or for subjects in language learning research and which can thus aid in the design and development of tasks that are more useful for these purposes. PART 1: LANGUAGE TESTING IN THE 1990s 　　In echoing Alderson’s (1991) title, I acknowledge the commonal-ities among the review articles mentioned above in the themes they discuss and the issues they raise. While each review emphasizes specific areas, all approach the task with essentially the same rhetorical organization: a review of the achievements in language testing, or lack thereof, over the past decade; a discussion of areas of likely continued development; and suggestions of areas in need of increased emphasis to assure developments in the future. Both Alderson and Skehan argue that while language testing has made progress in some areas, on the whole “there has been relatively little progress in language testing until recently” (Skehan, 1991, p. 3). Skehan discusses the contextual factors—theory, practical consider-ations, and human considerations—that have influenced language testing in terms of whether these factors act as “forces for conserva-tism” or “forces for change” (p. 3). The former, he argues, “all have the consequence of retarding change, reducing openness, and gen-erally justifying inaction in testing” (p. 3), while the latter are “pres-sures which are likely to bring about more beneficial outcomes” (p. 7). All of the reviews present essentially optimistic views of where language testing is going and what it has to offer other areas of applied linguistics. I will group the common themes of these reviews into the general areas of (a) theoretical issues and their im-plications for practical application, (b) methodological advances, and (c) language test development. THEORETICAL ISSUES 　　One of the major preoccupations of language testers in the past decade has been investigating the nature of language proficiency. In 1980 the “unitary competence hypothesis” (Oller, 1979), which claimed that language proficiency consists of a single, global ability was widely accepted. By 1983 this view of language proficiency had been challenged by several empirical studies and abandoned by its chief proponent (Oller, 1983). The unitary trait view has been replaced, through both empirical research and theorizing, by the view that language proficiency is multicomponential, consisting of a number of interrelated specific abilities as well as a general ability or set of general strategies or procedures. Skehan and Alderson both suggest that the model of language test performance proposed by Bachman (1990b) represents progress in this area, since it includes both components of language ability and characteristics of test methods, thereby making it possible “to make statements about actual performance as well as underlying abilities” (Skehan,