Language Assessment
Chap. 6 Assessing Listening
Basic Types of Listening
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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
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3. Selective. Assessment tasks could ask
to listen for names, numbers, directions,
or certain facts and events.
4. Extensive. Listening to develop a topdown, global understanding of spoken
language. Performance ranges from
lengthy lectures, a conversation, to a
comprehensive message. Listening for
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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
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Phonemic pair, consonants
Hear:
He’s from California.
Read:
(a). He’s from California.
(b). She’s from California.
Intensive Listening
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Phonemic pair, vowels
Hear:
Is he living?
Read: (a). Is he leaving?
(b). Is he living?
Sentence Paraphrase
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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One single photo is presented to the testtaker, 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
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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
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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 items
2. Dialogue and authentic questions on
details
Authentic Listening Tasks
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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
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3. Interpretive tasks: An interpretive task
extends the stimulus material to a longer
stretch of discourse and forces the testtaker 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
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5. Interactive listening: It is a two-way
process of speaking and listening in
face-to-face conversations.