Slide 2 Slide 3 Testing Listening Comprehension Chapter 11
Presentation by : Sajjad Ghadamyari Date of presentation : Dec. 16,
2014 - Tuesday Slide 4 Listening Comprehension in general Some
points about listening skill: Listening is one of the most
fundamental skills. Primarily, communication is feasible when the
two parties involved are able to comprehend each other. Listening
comprehension test items often combine listening with reading or
writing. The testee hears the stimulus and indicates his
comprehension by writing or marking one of the provided chioces in
the test. Tests of listening comprehension attempt to measure the
examinees ability to compehend and interpret the oral stimuli. Aims
of Testing Listening Comprehension in different levels: Beginning
and low-intermediate level: assess the testees comprehension of the
specific elements of language statements, questions and brief
conversational exchanges. Higher-intermediate and advanced level:
assess the examinees understanding of both informal and formal
lectures and their comprehension of native speakers in all kinds of
speech situations. Slide 5 Types of Items Generally speaking,
listening comprehension should be tested through a procedure that
requires the testee to listen to the stimulus material and choose
one of the choices based on the information available in the
stimulus itself. Pure item of listening comprehension: These items
do not require the testees to read or write. When you simply ask a
question to be answeded, or you mention specific oral instructions
to be carried out by the testee: What are you going to eat for
dinner ? Or Ali, please point to the picture of tree in the page.
Points on giving oral instructions ( Pure Items) : Its suitable for
children and beginners since its format does not require the testee
to produce langage in any form to show their understanding of the
command. It limits the testing of only requests and imperatives.
Also, this kind of item has to be administered to the examinees
individually. Slide 6 In a broader classification, different items
are introduced. These items include a verbal stimulus and printed
choices. Pictures Pictures offer various possibilities to assess
short samples of speech. The testee is given a picture and asked to
answer a multiple-choice or true/false question. The man is washing
the car. T F What is the man in the picture doing ? He is A)Washing
the car B) Walking in the park C) Drinking water D) Washing his
hands Slide 7 Questions In this type, the testee hears a question
once and selects a proper response from four choices printed in
his/her test paper. How often do you exercise? A) Every day B) Hard
C) In the park D) Soccer Since the item in this type tests
listening comprehension, the reading task should be kept to the
minimum. All the choices should be grmmatical and sensible
responses. Statements In this type, the examinee hears a statement
for which he chooses a paraphrase from four written choices. Merry
would have been the winner if she had tried hard. A) Merry was the
winner. B) Merry tried hard. C) Merry wasnt the winner. D) Merry
wasnt in the match. Slide 8 Dictation Dictation is probably a good
way to measure listening comprehension ability. In this type, the
tester reads out a passage and testees write down whatever they
hear. Understanding the meaning of the passage and comprehending
its elements and their realtionship is vital. Dialogs The dialog
type is closer to real-life use than the last types. In this type,
the examinee hears a conversation between two speakers. A third
voice then asks a question about the dialog. Straightforward
Questions: Paul: I want to buy a packet of popcorn for myself. What
are you gioing to buy ? Jane: I must buy a kilogram of beans to
make myself dinner. Third person : What is Jane going to do with
beans? She is going to A) sell them B) make dinner C) give them to
her friend D) make breakfast Slide 9 Inference-Making Questions:
Paul: I want to buy a packet of popcorn for myself. What are you
gioing to buy ? Jane: I must buy a kilogram of beans to make myself
dinner. Lets go find what we want. Third person : Where are Paul
and Jane? They are A) at home B) in a restaurant C) at a
grocery-store D) in a farm Lectures and Talks The ability to
understand formal lectures and talks is a vital skill. In order to
evaluate the rate of this ability, a university-type lecture or a
short-talk followed by comprehension questions can be used. The
testees listen to a 7-10 minute lecture and they can take notes.
After the lecture, they should answer questions about the content,
using their notes if they wish. In selecting texts for this type,
the content should be unfamiliar to the testees so that it demands
their attentive listening. The text chosen should be real and
natural, i.e. it should represent typical speech situations that
the testees are likely to face, e.g. formal lectures, casual chats,
face-to-face meetings, telephone or radio messages, commercials,
etc. Slide 10 Sample Lecture Sample Lecture Ladies and Gentlemen,
its a great pleasure to announce you that a conference will be held
on October 25, 2015 in Tehran. The conference will focus on the new
English Language coursebooks called PROSPECT. This conference will
analyse this series totally and academically and will focus on its
discourse analysis, book evaluation, cultural analysis and content
analysis. This conference will be held in collaboration with the
General Office of Education. All respectable teachers and
professors are welcomed to present their papers. All the necessary
information and instructions are posted in the main website of
conference. Wish you success. Questions Questions 1.When will the
conference be held ? A)October 25, 2050 B) October 29, 2015 C)
October 25, 2015 D) October 29, 2050 2. What subject do the
PROSPECT coursebooks refer to ? A)Academic B) English Language C)
Education D) General 3) Which one will not be focused in the
conference ? A) Discourse analysis B) Content analysis C) Cultural
evaluation D) Cultural analysis Slide 11 Distorted Message A
procedure that can estimate and evaluate readiness for English in
real-life contexts comprises oral stimulus materials with noise
added in the background. In this type, the students are asked to
write down what they hear. Some multiple-choice comprehension
questions can also be applied to check their understanding.
Experience has proved that even graduates of EFL are usually unable
to understand the language under adverse conditions, e.g.
announcements of airport (which is done in a high level of noise),
or a message on the telephone ( which may be accompanied by noises
around the caller). One advantage of native-speakers here is that
they are able to make compensations by relying on expectations and
guesses regarding the context and the speaker. Slide 12 Sample of
Distorted Listening Task Sample of Distorted Listening Task Brian:
So, where are you heading for? Jane: Im heading for Aspen. Brian :
Aspen is really beautiful. Why are you going there? Jane: Im going
there to meet my friend. I miss her too much. Where are you
heading? Brian: Im heading for Bojnord. Im going to attend an
English conference on material development in Bojnord University.
Im a keynote speaker there. Questions Questions Write down the
conversation between Brian and Jane. Why is Jane heading for Aspen
? Because A)Aspen is beautiful. B) Shes going to meet her friend.
C) Shes going to attend a conference. D) Shes going to meet her
family. Slide 13 Guidelines for Constructing Listening
Comprehension Items Some general guidelines are suggested to be
applied in constructing items for testing listening comprehension.
1.Selection of pictures should be done with great care. They should
be simple and easy-to-understand, i.e. they should have one
inerpretation for all testees. 2.Samples of spoken stimuli should
represent typical real-life speech activities such as lectures,
phone calls, various announcements, radio programs, commercials,
etc. The content of the stimulus should be unfamiliar to the
testees. 3.The choices should all appear correct to the less
proficient testees who have not grasped the full stimulus. Where
did John go ? A) Yesterday B) Yes,he did C)To Tehran D)To rest. The
choices should be brief and free from any grammatical and lexical
difficulty. Slide 14 4. Four considerations are important in
constructing questions on dialogs or lectures. First, the questions
should be concerned with overall comprehension or interpretation of
the stimulus material. They should not ask for detailed
information. Second, the lead or the question, should introduce the
problem. John is A)Always happy with his friends in school.
B)Enjoying to have his meals in school. C)Having difficulty
understanding science and math subjects. D)Feeling excited by the
environment of school. In this item, the testee is confused by the
vagueness of the item. He/She has to read all the choices before he
knows what he is expected. Third, the choices should require the
testees to listen attentively. Fourth, items that require outside
knowledge must be avoided. Slide 15 5. The oral stimuli can be
presented to the testees either live, i.e. by the tester, or played
on a tape. If the test is to be administered only once, live oral
stimuli is easier to be carried. If the test is to be administered
in different occasions, playing a tape is superior since it can
secure the test reliability. Slide 16 Imam Sadiq (P) says: If you
blame a person for doing a sin, you wont die till you yourself do
the same sin. ( ): . Dont judge others way of walking till you
havent puy their shoes on WISH YOU LUCK
