| Table of Contents | 第1-6页 |
| List of Figures and Tables | 第6-7页 |
| List of Abbreviations | 第7-8页 |
| List of Appendices | 第8-9页 |
| Abstract | 第9-11页 |
| Chinese Abstract | 第11-12页 |
| Chapter Ⅰ Introduction | 第12-17页 |
| ·The motivation for writing | 第12页 |
| ·A brief introduction to the present study | 第12-13页 |
| ·Major concepts | 第13-14页 |
| ·Purposes of the present study | 第14页 |
| ·Research questions | 第14-15页 |
| ·Significance of the study | 第15-16页 |
| ·The outline of the paper | 第16-17页 |
| Chapter Ⅱ LiteratureReview | 第17-37页 |
| ·Communicative competence | 第17-22页 |
| ·Communicative competence and language teaching | 第17-18页 |
| ·Three models of communicative competence | 第18-21页 |
| ·Hymes' model of communicative competence | 第18-19页 |
| ·Canale and Swain's model of communicative competence | 第19页 |
| ·Bachman's model of communicative competence | 第19-21页 |
| ·Communicative competence in current research | 第21-22页 |
| ·Performance variables associated with oral tests | 第22-32页 |
| ·Factors thataffectlanguagetestscores | 第22-23页 |
| ·Frameworks for speaking performance tests | 第23-24页 |
| ·Relevant studies on variables associated with the test taker | 第24-26页 |
| ·Relevant studies on variables associated with the task | 第26-28页 |
| ·Relevant studies on variables associated with the interlocutor | 第28-29页 |
| ·Relevant studies on variables associated with the assessment criteria(scales) | 第29-31页 |
| ·Relevant studies on variables associated with language competence | 第31-32页 |
| ·Role play activity in speaking tests | 第32-35页 |
| ·Non-communicative and communicative speaking tasks | 第32页 |
| ·Role play | 第32-35页 |
| ·Definition of role play activities | 第33页 |
| ·Reasons for using role play activities | 第33-34页 |
| ·Examples of role play activities | 第34-35页 |
| ·Semi-direct speaking tests | 第35-37页 |
| Chapter Ⅲ Research Design and Research Method | 第37-50页 |
| ·Pre-study questionnaire and think-aloud verbal report protocol | 第37-39页 |
| ·Pre-study questionnaire | 第37-38页 |
| ·Analysis of the questionnaire | 第38-39页 |
| ·Think-aloud verbal report protocol | 第39页 |
| ·Analysis of protocol data | 第39页 |
| ·Research questions and hypotheses | 第39-41页 |
| ·Research hypotheses | 第39-40页 |
| ·Related research questions | 第40-41页 |
| ·Description of the study | 第41-48页 |
| ·Participants | 第41-44页 |
| ·A brief introduction of TEM-4 and Oral Test,TEM-4 | 第42-43页 |
| ·Participants for the SOPT | 第43-44页 |
| ·Raters | 第44-45页 |
| ·Tasks | 第45-48页 |
| ·The SOPT task characteristics | 第45-46页 |
| ·Usefulness of the SOPT | 第46-47页 |
| ·Tasks | 第47-48页 |
| ·Data collection | 第48-49页 |
| ·The SOPT data collection | 第48页 |
| ·Procedure | 第48-49页 |
| ·Data analysis | 第49页 |
| ·Analysis of test scores | 第49页 |
| ·Analysis of language from the SOPT | 第49页 |
| ·Summary | 第49-50页 |
| Chapter Ⅳ Results and Discussion | 第50-63页 |
| ·Restatement of research questions and hypotheses | 第50页 |
| ·Results and analysis from the statistics of test scores | 第50-55页 |
| ·Correlation analysis for raters | 第50-51页 |
| ·Descriptive statistics of test scores | 第51-53页 |
| ·One-Way ANOVA of test scores | 第53-55页 |
| ·Analysis of language | 第55-60页 |
| ·Analysis of grammatical complexity | 第55-56页 |
| ·Analysis of grammatical accuracy | 第56-57页 |
| ·Further analysis of grammatical accuracy for low-proficiency group | 第57-60页 |
| ·Analysis of two selectedsamples | 第58-59页 |
| ·Comparison of mistakes for low-proficiency group | 第59-60页 |
| ·Summary | 第60-63页 |
| Chapter Ⅴ Conclusion | 第63-70页 |
| ·Major findings | 第63-66页 |
| ·Implications of the study | 第66-67页 |
| ·Implications for oral language tests | 第66-67页 |
| ·Implications for oral language teaching | 第67页 |
| ·Limitations of the present study | 第67-68页 |
| ·Suggestions for further research | 第68-70页 |
| References | 第70-77页 |
| Appendices | 第77-86页 |
| 发表文章目录 | 第86-87页 |
| Acknowledgements | 第87-89页 |
| 个人简况及联系方式 | 第89页 |
