Language Assessment

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Language Assessment

• Chap. 6 Assessing Listening

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Basic Types of Listening

• 1. Intensive. Listening for perception of
• components (phonemes, words, into-
• nation) 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.

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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

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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)

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Designing Intensive Listening

• Phonemic pair, consonants

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Intensive Listening

• Phonemic pair, vowels

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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.

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Dialogue Paraphrase

• Hear Man Hi, Maria, my names George.
• Woman Nice to meet you, George. Are
• you American?
• Man No, Im Canadian.
• Read (a). George lives in the U. S.
• (b). George is American.
• (c). George comes from Canada.

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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

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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)

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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 items
• 2. Dialogue and authentic questions on
• details

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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.

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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.

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Authentic Listening Tasks

• 5. Interactive listening It is a two-way
• process of speaking and listening in
• face-to-face conversations.