The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 13(1). The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of interface research between English discourse studies and speaking assessment. Assessment expertise has already been interfaced with discourse-based studies to develop and validate oral proficiency tests of English. One of the important developments in language assessment over recent years is the introduction of qualitative discourse research methodologies to design, describe, and validate direct or semi-direct tests of speaking. This paper explored assessment research in the areas of the following discourse studies: interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, variation analysis, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis. This review of discourse-related assessment literature showed that discourse studies have much potential for the validation tasks of current oral proficiency tests. Possible areas of discourse studies related to the new era of process-oriented language assessment were discussed.

Abstract 
Ⅰ. 영어평가와 담화연구 연계의 필요성 
Ⅱ. 영어평가와 정성적 연구문헌에서 고찰 
Ⅲ. 사회언어학의 담화연구 문헌에서 고찰 
Ⅳ. 향후 연구과제 
Ⅴ. 맺는 말 
참고문헌

• 신동일(중앙대학교)