Assessing Listening

Importance of Listening: Generally listening is given less importance than speaking It is implied as a component of speaking. How could you speak a language without listening? Observable nature of speaking is more measurable than listening. There is universal bias toward speaking: “Do you speak English?”, not “Do you understand and speak English?” Normally, however, we do more listening (input) than speaking in a typical day and one’s oral production ability is only as good as one’s listening comprehension ability

Models of Listening Bottom-up processing: Listening is linear, data-driven Comprehension occurs at the bottom Students take in a word, decode it and link it with other words in the text These sentences form meaningful texts Top-down processing: Listener directly constructs meaning from input S/He uses background knowledge of the context We should teach and assess both types

Approaches to Listening Assessment Discrete-point approach Became popular with ALM Breaks listening into components and assesses them separately Some common question types Phonemic discrimination Paraphrase recognition Underlying rationale Important to isolate one element of language from the whole Spoken language is the same as written language

Integrative approach Assesses a learner’s capacity to use many bits at the same time It is believed that the whole language is greater than the sum of its parts Question types Dictation Cloze

Communicative approach Affected by CLT Listener is expected to comprehend the message and then use it in context Questions are authentic in nature

Things to consider while preparing a listening assessment task Background knowledge: Make sure students are not able to answer test questions based on their background knowledge Test content: text types (narrative, descriptive?) Speech types (phrases, dialogues, monologues?) Mode of input (audio, video, live?) Varieties of English to be used? Scripted or unscripted input? Length of input?

Texts: not all texts are suitable; if you want to adapt a reading text, make sure you add some oral characteristics into them such as Today I am going to …. Pauses Coordinating conjunctions (instead of subordinating).. Vocabulary: Ss must know 90-95% of the words in the text Keep in mind ‘lexical overlap’ (when words in the text are used in the question and response) If in the correct answer, the question is easier If in the distractor, it is more difficult Never use an unknown vocab as the correct answer

Test structure: start with easy question Test as wide of a range of skills as possible Order the questions as they are heard in the passage No content from the first few seconds Formats: Don’t use a new format in testing Prefer objective formats (MCQ and T/F) In MCQ give 3 choices instead of 4 and in T/F don’t use NG Visual input can also be used

Item writing: Place test items far apart in the test so students have time to respond to one before the second comes Activate students’ background knowledge in instruction; for example Listen to the interview with Dr. Peter Davidson, a specialist in sports medicine. He will give you his views on the advantages and disadvantages of Extreme Sports. Then aswer the questions Timing: depends on the length of the tape or the number of repetitions of the texts

Things to consider while preparing a listening assessment task Most of the time students listen to the text twice. Provide this information in instructions. Give some time to Ss to have a look at the questions before they start listening While preparing a listening assessment task, we should consider the variety.

In general there are five types of listening assessment tasks: Short-answer questions Multiple-choice tasks True/false tasks Completion tasks Matching tasks

Short-answer Questions Can be used to test listening for specific information or listening for the main point The answer is a few words (generally max. 4 words for each line/blank) In instruction, provide the number of words and the context.

Sample Task You are going to hear a text about a Chinese museum. First you will have 30 seconds to study the questions below. Then you will hear the text twice. While listening, answer the questions (1-8) in a maximum of FOUR words. There is one example (0) at the beginning. After the second listening, you will have 30 seconds to finalise your answers. Start studying the questions now. THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM 0 How many items can be seen in the museum? Two hundred thousand. 1 When did bronze vessels first appear? ________________________________ 2 Who were the vessels offered to? ___________________________________

Multiple-Choice Tasks Can be used to test listening for specific information or listening for the main point Three or more different options can be given (depending on the level of Ss) For younger learners, the options might include pictures

Sample Task You are going to hear an interview with spacewoman Eileen Collins. First you will have 30 seconds to study the task below. Then you will hear the text twice. While listening, decide which option (A, B or C) best completes each sentence (1-7). Mark your answers in the space provided. There is one example (0) at the beginning. After the second listening, you will have 30 seconds to finalise your answers. Start studying the task now. SHUTTLE LAUNCH 0 Earlier she had worked with Russian astronauts in A A) a space station. B) spaceship. C) Russia and the US. 1 Working with the Russians meant A) small language problems. B) competition in space science. C) experience and fun.

True/False Tasks Can be used to test different skills like listening to the main idea, listening for specific information Not a good idea to add Not Mentioned option as it is in Reading

Sample Task You are going to hear a man talking about himself and the people he is going to meet today. First you will have 30 seconds to study the statements below. Then you will hear the text twice. While listening, mark the statements (1-7) true (T) or false (F) in the space provided. There is one example (0) at the beginning. After the second listening, you will have 30 seconds to finalise your answers. Start studying the statements now. PETER’S DAY 0 Peter last saw Jane yesterday. F 1 He is still friends with his former girlfriend. 2 Daniela is his daughter.

Completion Task Can also be called open gap-filling. Can be in the form of a table or a list of sentences with a certain number of blanks to be completed. Generally used to test listening for specific information The answer is a few words (generally max. 4 words for each line/blank)

Sample Task You are going to hear a text about a ski resort. First you will have 30 seconds to study the table below. Then you will hear the text twice. While listening, complete the spaces (1-7) in a maximum of FOUR words. There is one example (0) at the beginning. After the second listening, you will have 30 seconds to finalise your answers. Start studying the table now. COURMAYEUR Location Northwest (0) of Italy Ski AreaAltitude From 1224m to __________________m. (1) Total Length of ski runs_____________km (2)

Matching Tasks Different types of multiple matching are generally used. Statements and/or pictures can be used used to assess Ss’ understanding of associations, relationships, definitions, and so on Can also be used to summarise longer listening passages, or to understand the main point(s)

Sample Task You are going to hear a text about English courses. First you will have 30 seconds to study the table below. Then you will hear the text twice. While listening, match the course descriptions (A-G) to the courses (1-5). There is one example (0) at the beginning. There is one description that you do not need to use. After the second listening, you will have 30 seconds to finalise your answers. Start studying the task now. ENGLISH COURSES  0 ________E_________A … has lessons only in the morning.  1 _________________B … gives you practice in note taking.  2 _________________C … teaches you to make telephone calls.  3 _________________D … offers lessons all day.  4 _________________E … improves your conversation skills.  5 _________________F … helps you to study on your own. G … focuses on writing and discussion