1. LOWER SECONDARY TEACHER TRAINING WORKSHOP
Assessing receptive skills reading & listening

2. READING

3. Discussion Authentic reasons for reading/listening
Macro/micro skills for reading/listening
Types of reading/listening texts
How to select reading/listening texts
Reading/listening item types
Consideration when designing reading/listening tests

4. Assessing reading skills Authentic reason for reading
Tracy is looking for a number in a telephone directory
Rachel is reading the instructions on how to send a mail
Paul is writing his university dissertation and is looking for a quote he needs
Nicole is reading the directions of how to get her holiday destination
Steven is looking through the ads because he wants to buy a car

5. Macro-skills for Reading
Scanning text to locate specific information
Skimming text to obtain the gist
Identifying stages of an argument
Identifying examples in support of an argument

6. Micro-skills for Reading
Identifying referents of pronouns
Using context to guess meaning of unfamiliar words
Understanding relations between parts of text
Understanding grammatical structures & meanings of words

7. Types of reading texts
Academic reading: reference material, textbook, theses
Job-related reading: messages, letters/ s, memos
Personal reading: magazine, newspaper, letter, s, cards, invitations, schedule (trains, bus) poem etc.

8. Selecting texts Try to select a representative sample
Choose texts of appropriate length for the required task
Avoid texts which are made up of test takers’ general knowledge
Do not use texts which students have already read

9. Reading item types Multiple choice (with or without pictures)
Unique answer (only one possible answer: e.g. answer to a question or fill in the blank)
Short answer
Guided short answers (Ss fill in the blanks)
Summary cloze: the reading passage is summarized by the tester with gaps left in the summary for completion by the test taker.
Information transfer: test taker shows completion of reading task by (1) supplying simple information in a table, (2) following a route on a map, (3) labeling a picture, etc.

10. Reading item types Identifying order of events, topics, or arguments
Identifying referents
Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words from context

11. Procedures for writing items
Careful reading of text with specified operations in mind
Determining what tasks are appropriate
Writing draft items
Paragraph numbers and line number added if necessary
Should be checked by colleagues

12. Testing Reading Assess the Reading Test for strengths and weaknesses
Include different types of reading texts, including charts, maps, schedules
Use (adapted) authentic texts where possible
Check readability level
Include (Grammar) and Vocabulary in context
Use the entire text for questions
Add items that require the inference/deduction
Consider timing for reading fluency/skimming/scanning

13. LISTENING

14. Assessing listening skills What are authentic listening situations?
Interviews
Instructions
Loudspeaker announcements
Radio news
Committee meetings
Shopping
Theater
Telephone
Lectures
Conversation
Television
Story-telling
jokes

15. Characteristics of authentic listening situations
Informal
Spontaneous
Short chunks/clusters
Reductions (pronunciation)
Colloquial language
Ungrammatical
Unclear/incomprehensible items
Rate of delivery
Stress, rhythm, and intonation
Redundancy (rephrasings, repetitions, elaborations)
Performance variables (hesitations, false starts, pauses, corrections)
Listener expectation and purpose
Visual stimuli
Body language
Turn-taking/interaction
Attention to speaker

16. Macro-skills for Listening
recognize the communicative function of utterances
identify main ideas from supporting details
make inferences using real-world knowledge
predict outcomes and infer connections
distinguish between literal and implied meanings
use non-verbal clues to assist comprehension
use listening strategies (guessing vocabulary, signaling comprehension etc.)

17. Micro-skills for Listening
discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English
retain chunks of language in short-term memory
recognize English stress patterns, rhythm, intonation
recognize reduced forms of words
distinguish word boundaries
interpret word order patterns
process speech at different rates of delivery
process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections
recognize grammatical word forms, patterns, rules
recognize cohesive devices
recognize meaning expressed through different grammatical patterns

18. Listening Assessment Tips
Make sure students have enough contextualization to understand the listening text
Provide a communicative purpose for the listening
Focus on assessing the listening skills, not spelling, grammar etc.
Include both detail questions and meaning questions
Don’t expect full comprehension
Consider integrating skills in the types of questions: discrimination of phonemes, paraphrase recognition, short answers, cloze, dictation, information transfer tasks, note-taking

19. Considerations for creating listening tests
Text types (narrative, descriptive etc.)
Speech types (dialogues, monologues)
Mode of listening: audio, video, reader
Varieties of English
Scripted or unscripted
Length of listening, number of exchanges in dialogues