ASSESSING
LISTENING
Group 5 :
01
Luthfyyatul L 202012500381
Yuni Silaban -
02 202012500500
03
Ranti Dwi K 202012500528
The Importance of Assessing Listening
(1) Effective Communication Good listening skills are key to communicating effectivelyInput in the
successful of language acquicition
(2) Personal Relationships: Listening well can strengthen your personal relationships.
(3) Listening is often implied as a component of speaking
Overall, both listening skills and listening assessments play an important role in various aspects
of life, helping to improve communication, understanding and the quality of interpersonal
relationships.
Micro and
Macro Skills of
Listening
Micro Skills
Macro Skills
 Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English
 Retain chunks of language of different lengths in
short-term memory
 Recognize English stress pattern, words in stressed
and unstressed positions, rhythmic structure,
intonation controls, and their role in signaling
information
 Recognize the communicative function of utterances,
according to situation, participants, goals
 Infer situation, participants, goals using real world
knowledge.
 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings
Micro skills is attending to the smaller bits and
chunks of language, in more of a bottom – up
process.
Macro skills is focusing on the larger elements
involved in a top – down approach to a listening
task.
Micro And Macro Skills of Listening
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The following lists show the micro and macro skills which provide 17 different
objectives to assess in listening (adapted from Richards, 1983 in Brown
(2004;2018)
Micro skills:
1. Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English.
2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.
3. Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions,
rhythmic structure, intonation contours, and their role in signaling information.
4. Recognize reduced forms of words.
5. Distinguish word boundaries, recognize a core of words, and interpret word order
patterns and their significance
6. Process speech at different rates of delivery.
7. Process speech contairng pauses, errors, correction, and other performance
variables.
8. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense,
agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
9. Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor constituents.
10. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
11. Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.
Macro skills :
1. Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations,
participants, goals.
2. Infer situations, participants, goals using real-world know.
3. From events, Ideas, and so on, described, predict outcomes, infer links and connections
between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea,
supporting idea, new information, given information, and exemplification.
4. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
5. Use facial, kinesic, body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher meanings.
6. Develop and use a battery listening strategies, such as detecting key words, guessing
the meaning of words from context, appealing for help, and signaling comprehension or
lack there of.
Process Of Listening Through
Your Brain
CONTEXT AND CONTENT
RECOGNITION
You recognize speech
sounds and hold temporary
“imprint” of them in shortterm memory
You determine the type of speech event
(monologue, interpersonal or transactional
dialogue) that is being processed and
attend to its context (who the speaker is,
location, purpose) and the content of the
message.
Listening recognition refers to the process of understanding and interpreting spoken language. It
involves comprehending both the context and content of the communication. Effective listening
recognition requires the integration of various cognitive and linguistic processes.
Process Of Listening Through
Your Brain
Interpretation
RETENTION OF MEANING
Involves using bottom-up linguistic
decoding skills and/or top-down
background schemata to bring a
plausible interpretation to a
message, assigning a literal and
intended meaning.
In most cases, it is necessary to "prune"
the original linguistic form of a message to
retain important information in long-term
memory, except for repetition tasks.
The process of listening, interpretation, and retention of meaning is crucial for effective
communication and understanding. It's important to remember that effective communication is a
two-way process. Active listening, thoughtful interpretation, and retention of meaning all
contribute to successful communication and meaningful interactions.
Five Stages of the Listening Process
Receiving: The first step in the listening process is the reception of sound waves
by the ears. Sound waves are transmitted through the air and converted into
electrical signals by the ear. These electrical signals are then sent to the brain for
processing.
 Understanding: Understanding involves interpreting the selected information
and assigning meaning to it. This step requires the listener to decode the
linguistic content, identify the nuances, and comprehend the message being
conveyed.
 Evaluating: Evaluating involves critically analyzing the information received. The
listener may assess the credibility, relevance, and accuracy of the message.
Evaluating helps in forming opinions, making decisions, or taking appropriate
actions based on the information received.

Remembering: After understanding the message, the listener may retain the
information for a short or long period. The ability to remember the information
depends on factors such as the listener's cognitive abilities, the complexity of the
message, and the level of interest in the content.
 Responding: Responding refers to the reaction or feedback provided by the
listener to the speaker. It can be in the form of verbal or nonverbal
communication, indicating understanding, agreement, disagreement, or any
other relevant response.

Effective listening is a critical skill in various aspects of life, including personal
relationships, education, and professional settings. It requires focus, concentration,
empathy, and an open mind to fully grasp the intended message and respond
appropriately.
TYPES OF
LISTENING
PERFORMANCE
1. Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive Listening
Listening for perception of
components (phonemes,
words, intonation,
discourse markers, etc.)
Focused on the micro skills
of intensive listening
Gives a stimulus and asks
test-takers to identify the
stimulus from at least two
choices.
1. Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive Listening
Recognizing Phonological and Morphological
Phonemic pair, consonants
Morphological pair, -ed ending
Test-takers hear:
She’s eating candy.
Test-takers hear:
They asked question.
Test-takers read:
(a) She’s eating candy.
Test-takers read:
(a) They ask question.
(b) He’s eating candy.
(b) They asked question.
Phonemic pair, vowels
Stress pattern in can’t
Test-takers hear:
Is he leaving?
Test-takers hear:
I can’t swim.
Test-takers read:
(a) Is he leaving?
Test-takers read:
(a) I can’t swim.
(b) Is he living?
(b) I can swim.
One-word stimulus
Test-takers hear:
Vow
Test-takers read:
(a) Bow
(b) Vow
1. Designing Assessment Tasks: Intensive Listening
Paraphrase Recognition
Sentence paraphrase
Test-takers hear:
Test-takers read:
Good morning, everyone. I
am Yuni. My hobby is
watching movies.
(a) Yuni doesn’t like
movies.
Dialogue paraphrase
Test-takers hear:
Brian: Hi, Andy. My name is Brian.
Andy: Well, hi Brian, nice to meet
you. Do you like soccer?
Brian: I enjoy riding bicycles more.
Test-takers read:
(a) Brian hates riding bicycles.
(b) Yuni like swimming.
(c) Yuni enjoys watching
movies.
(b) Brian prefers riding bicycles.
(c) Andy enjoys riding bicyles.
2. Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive Listening
Focuses on the assessment of a relatively
short stretch of language (a greeting,
question, command, comprehension check,
and so on) to make equally short response.
Q&A task provides interaction
2. Designing Assessment Tasks: Responsive Listening
Appropriate response to a question
Test-takers hear:
When did Steffy have dinner
yesterday?
Test-takers read:
(a) She have dinner at 07.00 a.m.
(b) She has dinner at 07.00 p.m.
(c) She had diner at 07.00 p.m.
Open-ended response to a question
Test-takers hear:
When did Steffy have dinner yesterday?
Test-takers read:
_______________________ .
(test-takers have to write the appropriate
answer based on what they hear)
3. Designing Assessment Tasks: Selective Listening
Test takers are asked to listen and to discern to a limited quantity
of aural input which contains some information.
Processing stretches of discourse for a few minutes
to scan for information given on the aural input.
Test takers are usually asked to answer questions related to
certain information given such as names, numbers, directions,
grammatical category, certain facts, or events.
3. Designing Assessment Tasks: Selective Listening
Listening Cloze
●
●
●
The test is usually presented in the form of a story, monologue, conversation, or even song.
The test takers will be heard the aural input and given the written text which is few words are omitted.
The test takers usually have to choose the correct words from a list given.
Fill in the blanks by choosing the correct answer from this list of words:
knowing, days, blinking, years, standing
I See the Light
- Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi -
Test-takers read:
Test-takers hear:
All those ___ watching from the windows
All those ____ outside looking in
All that time never even __________
Just how blind I've been
Now I'm here, _________ in the starlight
Now I'm here, suddenly I see
__________ here, it's all so clear
I'm where I'm meant to be
All those days watching from the windows
All those years outside looking in
All that time never even knowing
Just how blind I've been
Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight
Now I'm here, suddenly I see
Standing here, it's all so clear
I'm where I'm meant to be
3. Designing Assessment Tasks: Selective Listening
Information Transfer
The technique: a picture – cued verbal – multiple choice
Task-takers see:
Task-takers hear:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
She is in the forest.
She is a florist.
She is in the flower garden.
She is allergic to flowers.
3. Designing Assessment Tasks: Selective Listening
Information Transfer
The technique: multiple picture – cued selection
Task-takers hear:
This morning, I went to school
wearing grey sweatpants, bluewhite jacket, black shoes, and
carrying backpack. The air was
very fresh while I walked
through a park with pretty
pink trees and there’s a
fountain in it.
Task-takers see:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
4. Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Listening
Dictation
Communicative Stimulus-Response Tasks
Test-takers hear a passage, typically of 50
to 100 words, recited three times:
Test takers will be provided with dialogue and
multiple-choice comprehension items. Test takers
have to answer some questions related to the
dialogue they’ve just heard.



first, at normal speed, no pauses;
then, with slowed speed and long pauses
between phrases or natural word groups,
during which time test-takers write down
what they have just heard;
and finally, at normal speed once more so
they can check their work and proof-read.
The difficulty of the test can be manipulated by:
o The length of the word groups
o The length of the pauses
o The speed at which the text is read
o The complexity of the discourse, grammar,
and vocabulary used in the passage
The monologues or conversation and the multiple
choice questions don’t mirror communicative, real-life
situations
4. Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Listening
Authentic Listening Tasks
a. Note-taking
Test-takers hear:
is an authentic listening which is very
appropriate to examine students’ listening skill.
A Solar Eclipse occurs when the moon moves in front of
the sun, blocking all or part of the sun's light for
observers on earth. When the moon appears to be
smaller than the sun, blocking out most of the sun's
light and giving the sun the appearance of a ring, this is
known as an annular eclipse. An annular Solar Eclipse
appears as a partial Eclipse of the sun over a region of
the earth that is thousands of kilometers or miles wide.
On Saturday, October 14, 2023, there will be an
annular Solar Eclipse, where the sun forms a ring of fire
around the moon.
Test-takers will be asked to listen to a lecture
and take a note if there’s any important point
from what they hear.
However,
- the process of scoring wastes time
- lack of reliability
- the notes become an indirect but arguably
valid form of assessing global listening
comprehension.
- the tasks fulfill the criteria of cognitive
demand, communicative language and
authenticity.
Test-takers are asked directly:
1. What is the text about?
2. When will there be an annular solar
eclipse?
4. Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Listening
Authentic Listening Tasks
b. Editing
Test-takers read:
 Provides a written and a spoken stimulus
The written stimulus material such as a news
report, an email from a friend, notes from a
lecture, or an editorial in a newspaper.
 Requires the test-takers to listen for
distinctions
 Scoring achieves high reliability
 Interpretative tasks
 Extends the stimulus materials to a longer
stretch of discourse and forces test-takers
to infer a response potential stimuli
Test-takers hear:
A spoken version of the stimulus that
deviates, in a finite number of facts or
opinions, from the original written form.
Test-takers mark:
The written stimulus by circling any words,
phrases, facts, or opinions that show
distinctions between the two versions.
4. Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Listening
Authentic Listening Tasks
c. Interpretive tasks
 Extends the stimulus to a
longer stretch of discourse
 Forces the test-takers to
infer a response potential
stimuli
 Test-takers are then
directed to interpret the
stimulus
 Potential stimuli include
song lyrics, recited poetry,
radio/television news
report, and an oral account
of an experience.
“Don’t tell me I’m a universe when I am barely human”
poem by Lilith Noah
Oh, to think I’d be as vast as her.
I’ve collected mistakes like parking tickets
but this one has to be the biggest:
thinking that my ribs
were heaven’s gates when they
are only catacombs for something
somebody might all a soul.
my nerves never lightning just
a chemical power line and if you tell me
that my eyes look like the wild sea
you have never seen an ocean.
when you cut me open
I bleed like an animal,
something human.
believe me I’ve tried, wished
for galaxies to spill, wished there was a
finger-snipping world-creating goddess
at the blunt end of scalpel.
Then, test-takers are directed to interpret the stimuli by
answering a few questions, as follows:
1. Why was the poet feeling sad?
2. What events might have led up to the reciting of this
poem?
4. Designing Assessment Tasks: Extensive Listening
Authentic Listening Tasks
d. Retelling
 Test-takers will listen to a story or news
event and simply retell or summarize it,
either orally or in writing.
 Test-takers must identify first the gist, main
idea, purpose, supporting details, and
conclusion to show full comprehension.
 Reliability may suffer
 Time and effort are needed to read and
evaluate the response lower practicality.
THANKS
Any Questions?