assessing listening ch6
Page 1: Introduction
Presentation by Amin Razzaghi, Ph.D.
Page 2: Lecture Objectives
Overview of upcoming chapters that will provide guidelines and hands-on practice for English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) assessment.
Importance of integrating skills for authentic assessment.
Topics covered in this chapter:
Importance of listening.
Principles and types of listening.
Various tasks for assessing listening.
Page 3: Observing Performance of Four Skills
All language users engage in listening, speaking, reading, and writing using their language competence.
Definition of competence: Ability in any or all four skills.
Definition of performance: Observable behaviors related to skills.
Discuss the discrepancy between performance and true competence.
Page 4: Problems in Language Assessment
Challenge: Does performance equal competence?
Objective of language assessment: Evaluate competence through performance observations.
Teachers should use multiple measures for reliability and validity.
Consideration of learners' multiple intelligences is important.
Page 5: Observable Performance
Direct observation of skills:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Assessment of receptive performance must be inferred rather than directly observed.
Page 6: Purposes of Listening Comprehension
Components of listening comprehension includes:
Micro-skills (bottom-up processes)
Macro-skills (top-down processes)
Real-life listening objectives:
Communicating meaning
Exchanging facts and ideas
Engaging in debates/discussions
Interpreting speaker intentions
Page 7: Micro-skills vs. Macro-skills
Micro-skills of Listening: Focus on smaller bits of language (bottom-up).
Macro-skills of Listening: Focus on larger elements and overall context (top-down).
Page 8: Detailed Micro- and Macro-skills of Listening
**Micro-skills:
Interpretation of intonation patterns.
Linguistic decoding skills (bottom-up).
Macro-skills:
Listening for specific information.
Following directions and instructions (top-down).
Page 9: Challenges in Listening
Factors that make listening difficult:
Clustering
Redundancy
Reduced language forms
Performance variables
Colloquial language
Delivery rate
Stress, rhythm, intonation
Interaction
Page 10: Types of Listening Tasks
Intensive Tasks - Focus on phonological/morphological elements and paraphrasing.
Responsive Tasks - Short conversations (e.g., TOEFL).
Selective Tasks - Short monologues focusing on specific facts.
Extensive Tasks - Listening for gist in lectures (e.g., TOEFL).
Page 11: Intensive Listening Tasks
Examples of recognizing:
Phonemic pairs (e.g., California vs. She’s from California).
Morphological pairs (e.g., different tenses).
Page 12: Intensive Listening -- Paraphrase Recognition
Example task: Choose the right paraphrase of a statement (e.g., about Keiko).
Page 13: Responsive Listening (Q&A Format)
Example question with options (testing comprehension).
Page 14: Open-ended Response
Test-takers respond to questions after listening.
Page 15: Question-Response Tasks
Description of tasks involving listening to questions/responses and selecting the best reply.
Examples demonstrating the task format.
Page 16: Selective Listening Tasks
Listening Cloze tasks.
Information Transfer tasks with multiple picture cues.
Page 17: Listening Cloze
Task format: Fill in the blanks from a listening text.
Page 18: Example Cloze Questions
Sample question for filling in missing words.
Page 19: Information Transfer Tasks
Description with example scenario for identifying people/actions in pictures.
Page 20: Information Transfer (Scheduling)
Example weekly schedule with listening tasks.
Page 21: Sentence Repetition Task
Steps of the task: listening, writing, checking.
Page 22: Sample Visual Questions
Format for visual-based listening comprehension questions.
Page 23: Additional Sample Visual Questions
Another example of visual-based question format.
Page 24: Extensive Listening -- Dictation
Structure of dictation tasks and recitation frequency.
Page 25: Factors Affecting Dictation Difficulty
Key factors include speed, complexity, vocabulary, and pause lengths.
Page 26: Extensive Listening -- Stimulus-Response Tasks
Description of tasks responding to dialogues with comprehension questions.
Page 27: Short Talks
Test-taker's engagement with short listened segments and related questions.
Page 28: Example Short Talk Questions
Samples from short talks followed by comprehension questions.
Page 29: Extensive Listening -- Authentic Tasks
Examples: note-taking, editing, interpretive tasks.
Page 30: Note-taking Task Benefits
Authentic task that reflects classroom learning.
Page 31: Interpretive Tasks
Element of paraphrasing various stimuli such as song lyrics and news reports.
Page 32: Challenges of Interpretive Tasks
Task timing limitations and diverse potential interpretations.
Page 33: Retelling Tasks
Tasks involving the retelling of stories or news events to demonstrate comprehension.
Page 34: Reiteration of Sample Questions
Repeated example of question structure from previous sections.
Page 35: Issues of Concern in Listening Assessment
Considerations for desired outcomes of listening tests, focusing on:
Phoneme discrimination.
Recognition of stress/intensity patterns.
Comprehension of continuous speech.