TESTING AND ASSESSING LISTENING

LANGUAGE ASSESMEN

DELLA OFERISCHA

(1305376) K4.2013

TESTING LISTENING

Some problems appears in constructing listening test:● listeners cannot usually move backwash and forward over what being said ● doesnot represent a typical listening task for most people

A. Specifying what the candidate should be able to do

Content

Operations

Some operation may be classified as global. They include ability to:● obtain the gist● follow an argument● recognize the attitude of the speaker

Informational• Obtain factual information

• Follow instructions(including directions)

• Understand requests for information; expression of needs; request for help; permission; apologies

• Follow sequence of events (narration);

• Recognise and understand opinions

• Follow justification of opinions

• Understand comparisons

• Recognise and understand suggestions; comments; excuses; expressions of preferences; complaints; speculation

Interactional• Understand greeting and introductions; expressions of

agreement; disagreement• Recognise speaker’s purpose; indications of uncertainty• Understand request for clarification• Recognise request for clarification; opinion; indications of

understanding; indication of failure to understand• Recognise and understand corrections by speake;

modifications of statements and comments• Recognise speaker’s desire that listener indicate

understanding; when speaker justifies or support statements of other speaker; when speaker questions assertions made by other speakers; attemps to persuade others

It may also be thought worthwhile testing lower level listening skill in a diagnostic test. These might include:• Discriminate between vowel phonemes• Discriminate between consonant phonemes• Interpret intonation pattern

TextsFor reasons of content validity and backwash, text should be

specified as fully as possible:Text typemonologue, dialogue or multiparticipantFurther specified: conversation, announcement, talk or lecture, instruction, direction, etcText formDescription, exposition, argumentation, instruction, narationLengthMaybe express in seconds or minutesSpeed of speechMaybe express as word per minute (wpm) or syllable per second (sps)DialectsStandard or non-standard varietiesAccentsRegional or non regional

B. Setting criterial levels of performance

• The remarks made in the chapter on testing reading apply equally here. If the test is set at an appropriate level, then, as with reading, a near perfect set of responses maybe required for a ‘pass’. ACTFL (American Council for Teaching of Foreign Language) or ILR (Interagency Round Table) or other scales maybe used to validate the criterial levels that are set.

C. Setting the task

1. Selecting sample of speech (text)use samples of authentic speech to find out:• How candidates can cope with language

intended for native speakers?• Whether candidates can understand the

language that maybe adressed to them as non-native speakers.

sources: radio, television, spoken-word cassetes, teaching material, internet, recording of native speakers.

2. Writing Items

For extendede listening, a useful first step is to listen to the passage and note down what it is that candidates should be able to get from the passage.

Things to do to restraint problems in the test:

- Candidates should be warned by key words

- Candidates should be given fair warninginthe passage

- Candidates should be given sufficient time at the outset to familiarise themselves with the items

Possible Techniques

1.Multiple Choice2.Short answer3.Gap filling4.Note taking5.Partial dictationtranscription

1. Multiple Choice

• The advantages and disadvantages of using multiple choice in extended listening tests are similar to those identified for reading test.• There is a problem of the candidates having to - hold in their heads four or more alternatives while

listening to the passage - after responding to one item- taking in and retaining the alternatives for the next

item

2. Short answer

This technique can work well because it provides:- Short question and straightforward- The correct- Preferably unique- Response is obvious

3. Gap Filling

This technique can work well where a short answer question with aunique answer isnot possible.

4. Information Transfer

This technique is as useful intesting listening as it is in testing reading because it makes minimal demands on productive skills.- Involve the labelling of diagrams or pictures- Completing forms- Making diary entries- Showing routes on a map

5. Note taking

This activity can be quite realitically replicated in the testing situation.

Candidates take notes during the talk,and only after the talk is finished do they see the items to which theyhave to respond.

It is essential to use a passage from which notes can be taken successfully in making a test.

6.Partial dictationIt can be useful as a testing technique. This

can be used diagnostically to test students’ ability to cope with particular difficulties (such as week forms in English)

7. TranscriptionCandidates maybe ask to transcribed

numbers or words which are spelled letter by letter.

3. Moderating the item

• The moderationof listening items is essential• It should be carried out using the already

prepared recordings or with the item writer reading the text as it is meant to be spoken in the test.• The moderator beginby “taking” the test and

analyze their items and theirreaction to them.

4. Scoring the listening test

In scoring a test of a receptive skill, there is no reason to deduct points for errors of grammar or spelling.

ASSESSING LISTENING

A. INTEGRATION OF SKILLS IN LANGUAGE ASSESMENT

Every language teacher and researcherwill tell you that the integration of skills is of paramount importance in language learning.

In assessing language, integration is even more of a certainty because assesment virtually always implies a “two-ways street” between the teacher/tester and the student: A set of questions of prompts is produced by the teacher and comprehended by the test-taker. Such integration is of course authentic in its simulation of real-world communication.

B. ASSESSING GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARIES

There is no such thing as a test of grammar or vocabulary that does not evoke one or more of the separate skills of listening, speaking, reading, or writing.

Assessing grammar is to provide current perspectives on the myths and the realities of form-focused assessment and to bring grammar and vocabulary test more in line with current view of functional grammar and pragmatics.

C. OBSERVING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FOUR SKILLS

The relationship between listening and two interacting concepts (performance and observation).1.Performance

All language users perform tha acts of listening and speaking. one important principle for assessing a learner’s competence is to consider the falibility of the result of a single performance, such as that produced in a test.2. Observation/ Observable

It means being able to see or hear performance of the learner (the senses of touch, taste, and smell don’t apply very often to language testing)

D. THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

• Listening is often emphasizes as a component of speaking• Therefore we need to pay close attention to listening as a mode of

performance for assesment in the classroom

E. BASIC TYPES OF LISTENINGThe following processes flash through your brain:

1.You recognise speech sounds and hold a temporary “imprint” of them in short-term memory.

2.You simultaneously determine the type of speech even (monologue, insterpersonal dialogue, transactional dialogue) that is being processed and attend to its context and the content of the message.

3.You use (bottom-up) linguistic decoding skills and/or (top-down) background schemata to bring a plausible interpretation to the message and assign a literal and intended meaning to the utterance.

4.In most cases, you delete the exact linguistic form in which the message was originally receive in favor of conceptually reatining important or relevant information in long-term memory.

Each of those stages represents a potential assesment objective:1.Comprehending surface structure elements

such as phonemes, words, intonation, or grammatical category

2.Understanding pragmatic context3.Determining meaning of auditory input4.Developing the gist, a global or

comprehensive understanding

From these stages we can derive four commonly identified types of listening performance:

• Intensive• Responsive• Selective• extensive

What makes listening difficult

- Clustering- Redundancy- Reduced forms- Performance variabels- Colloquial language- Discourse markers- Rate of delivery- Stress, rythm, and intonation- interaction

G. DESIGNING ASSESMENT TASKS: INTENSIVE LISTENING

Once you have determined objectives, your next step is to design the tasks, including making decisions about how you will elicit performance and how you will expect the test-taker to respond.

H. DESIGNING ASSESMENT TASKS: RESPONSIVE LISTENING

The objective of this item is recognition of WH-Question and its appropriate response.

I. DESIGNING ASSESMENT TASKS: SELECTIVE LISTENING

The test-taker listens to a limited quantity of aural input and must discern within it some specific information.

Techniques of selective listening

• Listening clozeit requires the test-taker to listen to a story,

monologue, or conversation and simultaneously read the written text in which selected words or phrases have been deleted.

weakness of listening cloze is that they may simply become reading comprehension task.• Information transfer

it must be tranferred to a visual representation, such as labeling a diagram, identifying an element in a picture, completing a form, or showing routes on a map• Sentence repetition

this task may test only recognition of sounds and it can easily be contaminated by lack of short-term memory ability.

J. DESIGNING ASSESMENT TASKS: EXTENSIVE LISTENING

Some important question about designing assessments at this level emerge:1.Can listening performance be distinguished from cognitive

processing factors such as memory, associations, storage, and recall?

2.As assessment procedures become more communicative, does the task take into account test-taker’s ability to use grammatical expectancies, lexical collocations, semantic interpretations, and pragmatic competence?

3.Are test tasks become more and more open-ended, they more closely resemble pedagogical tasks, which lead one to ask, “ what is the difference between assessment and teaching tasks?

• Dictation• Communicative stimulus-response tasks• Authentic listening tasks

- notetaking- editing- interpretive tasks- retelling

THANK YOU