This volume includes selected papers from the 28th Language Testing Research Colloquium, held at the University of Melbourne (Australia) in July 2006. The papers selected for this volume share a common theme – that of ‘performance’. Not only do they focus on performance assessments of second or foreign language speaking and writing, but they also focus on the performance of the participants – the candidate (or candidates) and the raters – and the construction of that performance through the tasks and the assessment criteria.