The passage looks to be a part of literary piece and it is written in past tense

Contents of Speech Tests

The first step of the tester of oral skills is to decide the content of the oral test. Obviously, the test content includes language functions given in the syllabus. The syllabus may expect the students to learn language functions such as narrating an event, thanking, apologizing, asking and giving information, directions, offering, clarification, ordering, instructing, advising etc.
The tester should decide what functions to be included in the speech test. Generally, a representative sample of language functions should be selected but this is not easy; it is not possible to make a precise classification of the functions for selection purpose. Basically, the tester can include as many functions as possible in his test but practically there is a limit to what he can test.
Along with language functions, the tester should consider what sub-skills of speech will be given more weight in the test, according to the syllabus. For example, whether pronunciation should be included as an important aspect of the test is matter that should be dealt with at the beginning.

3. 
   Test Formats
   

The next step of the tester is to decide the test format for eliciting language for testing the intended language functions and sub-skills. The following formats will be useful:

1. 
   Interview
   

This is a very common test format used in speech tests. The examiner interviews the candidates to elicit the intended language functions through different techniques. If the examiner creates a situation and gives a particular role to the candidate (for example, at a bank – the candidate is a bank manger and gives information to the examiner who plays the role of a customer). The major drawback in this format is that the candidate may not feel free to speak since he communicates in setting where he speaks to a superior, the examiner. His true language performances will not be revealed in this context.

2. 
   Interaction with peers
   

Two or more candidates discuss something on a given issue, make plans etc. This seems to be a solution to the problem found in the interview format: candidates interact with their peers and their anxiety level is lower so that it is possible to assume that their true performances will be shown in this format. However, in this format, one or two members will dominate the others in the group, which may affect the performances of the others. The examiner has an additional role to look into this matter and whenever possible match the performances of group members in forming groups.

3. 
   Response to tape-recordings
   

The test items are tape-recorded. The candidates are asked to respond to them, which will also be recorded. There are a few advantages of using this technology for effective testing. This is an economical way of testing: a large number of students can be tested simultaneously. It is easy to maintain uniformity in testing conditions. The examiner can go through the recorded response several times freely and his judgment will be more accurate. In this way, this is a more reliable testing format. However, this is an inflexible way of testing: there is no way of following up the responses of the candidates.

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