Rating scales and native speaker performance on a communicatively oriented EAP test

Explicit or implicit references to the performance of native speakers are to be found in rating scale descriptors in communicatively oriented tests. But the use of the native speaker as a reference point derives from a precommunica tive tradition, and the performance of native speakers on cognitively demanding communicative tests has not been carefully investigated. This article reports on three studies of the performance of native speakers of varying educational backgrounds on a test of reading and writing skills in English for academic purposes contexts. The results show that reference to native speaker performance in rating scales is unwarranted, and help us to understand the nature of the skills being measured in such tests.