Build Bright UniversityBuild Bright UniversityLanguage Testing and AssessmentLanguage Testing and Assessment

Chapter-6Chapter-6

Assessing ListeningAssessing Listening

Prepared by Kheang Sokheng, Prepared by Kheang Sokheng, Ph.D Candidate and MEd in TESOLPh.D Candidate and MEd in TESOL

Basic Types of Listening

• 1. Intensive. Listening for perception of

components (phonemes, words, intonation) of a

larger stretch of language.• 2. Responsive. Listening to a relatively short stretch

of language ( a greeting, question, command,

comprehension check, etc.) in order to make a

short response.

Basic Types of Listening

3. Selective. Assessment tasks could ask to listen for

names, numbers, directions, or certain facts and

events.

4. Extensive. Listening to develop a top- down, global

understanding of spoken language. Performance

ranges from lengthy lectures, a conversation, to a

comprehensive message. Listening for

Basic Types of Listening

the main idea, and for making inferences.•Micro-skills of listening: attending to the smaller bits and chunks of language, in more of a bottom-up process.•Macro-skills of listening: focusing on the larger elements involved in a top-down approach to a listening task. (p. 121)

Designing: Intensive Listening

• Phonemic pair, consonants

Hear: He’s from California.

Read: (a). He’s from California.

(b). She’s from California.

Intensive Listening

• Phonemic pair, vowels

Hear: Is he living?

Read: (a). Is he leaving?

(b). Is he living?

Sentence Paraphrase

• Hear: Hello, my name is Ken. I come from Japan.

• Read: (a). Ken is comfortable in Japan.

(b). Ken wants to come to Japan.

(c). Ken is Japanese.

(d). Ken likes Japan.

Dialogue Paraphrase

• Hear: Man: Hi, Maria, my name’s George.

Woman: Nice to meet you, George. Are

you American?

Man: No, I’m Canadian.• Read: (a). George lives in the U. S.

(b). George is American.

(c). George comes from Canada.

Responsive Listening

• Response to a question• Hear: How much time did you take to do your

homework?• Read: (a). In about an hour.

(b). About an hour.

(c). About $10.

(d). Yes, I did.

Responsive Listening

• Open-ended response to a question• Hear: How much time did you take to do your

homework?• Write/Speak: ______________________• (Good: authenticity & creativity • Bad: practicality)

Selective Listening

– Listening Cloze (p. 126)– In a listening cloze task, test-takers see a

transcript of the passage that they are listening to and fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they hear.

Information Transfer

• 1. Multiple-picture-cued selection (p. 127)• 2. A number of people and/or actions are presented in one picture, such as a group of people at a

party.• Q: Is the tall man near the door talking to a short woman?• T/F: The woman wearing a red skirt is watching TV. Identification: Point to the person who is standing

behind the lamp.

Single-picture-cued verbal multiple-choice

• One single photo is presented to the test-

taker, who then hears four different statements

and must choose one of the four to describe the photo. (p. 128)

• Information transfer: chart-filling (p. 129)• Sentence repetition: the task of repeating a

sentence/a partial sentence

Extensive Listening

• Dictation: In a dictation, test-takers hear a passage, typically of 50 to 100 words, recited three times: first, at normal speed; then, with long pauses between phrases/natural word groups, and finally, at normal speed once more, during which test-takers write down what they have heard. (p. 131)

Communicative S-R Tasks

• The test-taker is presented with a stimulus monologue/conversation and then is asked to respond to a set of comprehension questions. (p. 133)

1. Dialogue and multiple-choice comprehension

items2. Dialogue and authentic questions on details

Authentic Listening Tasks

• A framework of alternatives

1. Note-taking: The gain of note-taking is in offering

students an authentic task that mirrors what they

have been focusing on in the classroom.

2. Editing: It provides both a written and a spoken

stimulus, and requires the test-taker to listen for

discrepancies.

Authentic Listening Tasks

3. Interpretive tasks: An interpretive task extends the stimulus material to a longer stretch of discourse and forces the test- taker to infer a response. 4. Retelling: In a related task, test-takers listen to a story or news event and retell it / summarize it, either orally or in writing.

Authentic Listening Tasks

5. Interactive listening: It is a two-way process

of speaking and listening in face-to-face

conversations.