Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening Skills



















Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:
a) Determine how listening skills are assessed
b) Identify the types of listening skills assessed
c) Identify some of the principles of assessing listening skills
d) List the different format of listening skills test
e) Explain the testing factors affect listening performance
1 4.1 Preamble
2 4.2 How are listening skills assessed?
3 4.3 Assessing listening proficiency
4 4.4 Principles of assessing listening skills
5 4.5 Formats of listening skills tests
6 4.6 Factors affecting listening performance
7 4.7 Sample of listening skills tests
8 4.8 Self-assessment of your listening skills
Summary
Reference
C
Chapter 1: Introduction to Listening
Chapter 2: Teaching Listening
Chapter 3: Listening Activities
Chapter 4: Assessing Listening Skills
5 Chapter 5: Introduction to Speaking
Chapter 6: Teaching Speaking
Chapter 7: Speaking Activities
Chapter 8: Assessing Speaking Skills
Chapter 9: Listening-Speaking Connection



Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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This chapter focuses on assessment of listening skills. The underlying principles of testing
listening skills is examined and the various formats for assessing listening. Also presented are
samples of listening tests to illustrate the types of tests you could use to assess the listening
skills of your students.



Listening tests typically resemble reading comprehension tests except that the student listens
to a passage instead of reading it. The student then answers multiple-choice questions that
address various levels of literal and inferential comprehension. Important elements in all
listening tests are (1) the listening stimuli, (2) the questions, and (3) the test environment.






The listening stimuli should represent typical oral language, and not consist of simply
the oral reading of passages designed to be written material. The material should
model the language that students might typically be expected to hear in the classroom,
in various media, or in conversations. Since listening performance is strongly
influenced by motivation and memory, the passages should be interesting and
relatively short. To ensure fairness, topics should be grounded in experience common
to all students, irrespective of sex and geographic, socioeconomic, or racial/ethnic
background.

In regard to questions, multiple-choice items should focus on the most important
aspects of the passage; not trivial details and should measure skills from a particular
domain. Answers designated as correct should be derived from the passage, without
reliance on the student's prior knowledge or experience. Questions and response
choices should meet accepted psychometric standards for multiple-choice questions.



TEST ENVIRONMENT

4.2 How are Listening Skills Assessed?
4.1 Preamble
Listening Stimulus Question
Response
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Response - An alternative to the multiple-choice test is a performance test that
requires students to select a picture or actually perform a task based on oral
instruction. For example, students might hear a description of several geometric
figures and choose pictures that match the description, or they might be given a map
and instructed to trace a route that is described orally.

The testing environment for listening assessment should be free of external
distractions. If stimuli are presented from a tape, the sound quality should be
excellent. If stimuli are presented by a test administrator, the material should be
presented clearly, with appropriate volume and rate of speaking.


You can use post-listening activities to check
comprehension, evaluate listening skills and
use of listening strategies, and extend the
knowledge gained to other contexts. A post-
listening activity may relate to a pre-listening
activity, such as predicting; may expand on
the topic or the language of the listening text;
or may transfer what has been learned to
reading, speaking, or writing activities.
In order to provide authentic assessment of
students' listening proficiency, a post-listening
activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information they have
gained through listening.
It must have a purpose other than assessment
It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening comprehension by
completing some task.
To develop authentic assessment activities, consider the type of response that listening to a
particular selection would elicit in a non-classroom situation. For example, after listening to a
set of instructions, one might repeat them to someone else; after watching and listening to a
play or video, one might discuss the story line with friends.
Use this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-listening tasks. You can then
develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to evaluate each student's comprehension of
specific parts of the aural text.
For example, for listening practice you have students listen to a weather report. Their purpose
for listening is to be able to advise a friend what to wear the next day. As a post-listening
4.3 Assessing Listening Proficiency
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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activity, you ask students to select appropriate items of clothing from a collection you have
assembled, or write a note telling the friend what to wear, or provide oral advice to another
student (who has not heard the weather report). To evaluate listening comprehension, you use
a checklist containing specific features of the forecast, marking those that are reflected in the
student's clothing recommendations.





While assessing students level of spoken and written skills is a straightforward process,
finding ways to assess listening skills takes more time and lesson planning. Knowing how
well your students comprehend spoken English is necessary for you as a teacher to map your
students' progress and to help them advance in their communication skills. Ludwig (2012)
suggests the following principles of assessing listening skills:
Choose level-appropriate testing materials. Recordings are more helpful than video
because your students won't have the context and body language of a movie or TV
show to help with comprehension. Bring in as many outside listening activities as
possible, whether they are recordings as part of the language-learning curriculum,
authentic materials such as podcasts or radio shows, or guest speakers. Your students
will get used to your voice and may fall into a comfort zone. To effectively assess
their practical English listening skills, you need to see how well they understand
various speakers.

Give your students a specific task. Avoid giving general directions such as to listen
and summarise what they hear or just get a general idea of what is happening. Ask a
few specific questions about the recording for them to anticipate and listen to. You
can do this in a multiple-choice or true/false format. When they have answered the
questions, give the correct answers and then replay the recording for the students to
listen specifically for the answer. If you find that a certain question is answered
incorrectly by most of the students, this will give you some guidance about what your
students need help with and what you need to spend more time covering.

Expose your students to accents. You must prepare your students to understand
speakers with foreign and regional accents. English is an international language,
meaning your students may come into contact with speakers who have multiple
linguistic backgrounds. Whether your students are immigrants integrating into a new
4.4 Principles of Assessing Listening Skills
a) Explain the four elements that are found in a listening test.
b) What do you mean by authentic assessment activities?
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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community of English speakers or looking to do international business or professional
work with English speakers, they will need to communicate with people who have a
variety of accents. You can find listening exercise and assessment materials that
specifically include accented English.

Use music to assess listening skills within various contexts. Music is a good way
for students to have fun and take a break from standard curriculum while perfecting
their listening. Tell your students the name of a song and have them make predictions
about what it is about. Follow the song with a discussion about the predictions and
then replay it.









In early times, listening tests emphasize test takers ability to discriminate phonemes, to
recognize stress as well as intonation patterns and to record what had been heard through a
written product (usually in multiple-choice forms). Proficiency in listening comprehension
was regarded as the sum of a test takers correct responses in these discrete sub-tests. But
now people dont think that the ability to discriminate phonemes indicates a capacity to
comprehend verbal message any more.

The emphasis has been shifted to contextualized cues of listening comprehension, including
all the additional redundant features that facilitate comprehension. The concern now is with
testing meaning rather than understanding forms of language (Buck, 1991). Test takers
performance would be affected by the type of response that is required of them. There are
different types of responses, and each of them has advantages or disadvantages. Among the
types of format commonly used are: [You have learned about these formats in two other
courses taken earlier!]

true-false questions,
multiple-choice,
gap-filling summary,
cloze tests,
dictation and
open-ended questions.

a) What do you mean by level appropriate testing materials?
b) Would you expose your students to different accents? Explain.
c) Why is it important to provide specific instructions?
d) Why would you use music to assess listening skills?
4.5 Formats for Testing Listening Comprehension
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Among these, the multiple-choice format is particularly favoured and widely used in tests of
listening comprehension.

a) Multiple-Choice Format

Why are multiple-choice questions popular in
listening tests?. Multiple-choice tests are fast,
easy, and economical to score. In fact, they can
even be scored by machines objectively and are
more reliable than subjectively scored tests.
Besides, they reduce the chances of test takers
guessing the correct answer in comparison to
true-false items and they require a minimal amount of time to complete. Others have
criticised the multiple-choice format and indicated that good multiple-choice items are
notoriously difficult to write.

Multiple-choice tests only tests recognition knowledge and severely restricts what can
be tested. And guessing may have a considerably unknowable effect on test scores; its
backwash may be harmful and cheating may be facilitated. Multiple-choice test
preparation is difficult. Having four options in mind (while listening) could become
an extra burden for test takers and that guessing could become an important factor
affecting test reliability.

b) True-False Format

It is much easier to write true-false test items than multiple-choice questions, but
guessing is a serious problem needed to be tackled because the test takers have a fifty
percent chance of being correct by guessing. Another problem is that the questions
may overburden the test takers ability to remember textual information. While the
test is proceeding, test takers may have comprehended what is being said at the time
of listening, but by the time they get to the questions, the memory trace may have
been erased by subsequent information in the text.

c) Open-Ended Question Format

Open-ended questions have no guessing problems and permit the test constructors to
ask any questions. They also avoid some of the problems connected with multiple-
choice formats and possess the advantages of easy writing. Thus they also play an
important role in testing listening comprehension. Nevertheless, there are still some
disadvantages. First of all, they are not easy to score because more than one answer
can be reasonably interpreted as correct. In the second place, problems with open-
ended questions arise when there is no sufficient indication of how much information
should be included in the answer (Buck, 1991).







Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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d) Dictation

The basic idea of dictation is that examinees
listen and write and some experts contend that
it was a good test of expectancy grammar.
Taking dictation tests involves the
interpretation of acoustic signal, phonemic
identification, lexical recognition, morphology,
syntactic analysis and semantic interpretation. Dictation tests assess performance at
all stages of the speech perception process. They are easy to construct and quick to
administer but hard to score. Scoring may be problematic for test administers, and
they must formulate a rating scale and avoid the variance of inter-rater or intra-rater
scoring. Besides, the use of a semantic scoring rather than an exact word system
should further enhance a tests validity.


e) Cloze Test Format

Cloze tests come from reading
tests based on the idea of reduced
redundancy. A text is selected,
and words are replaced by blanks
in a systematic way, usually every
fifth, seventh or tenth word. It is
usually preceded by just listening
to the complete text first, with test
takers taking notes if they wish.
They are then given the mutilated
passage; they listen to it a second time and complete the blank while listening, with a
short amount of time being available afterwards for completing any blanks.

This format is useful as an initial screening device when the objective is to divide
large group of test takers into ability band rather than to say anything precise about
specific listening capabilities. This type of test has advantages in large-scale testing
operation in that it is easy to construct, administer and mark. Decisions must,
however, be taken in advance as to whether answers will be marked by an exact
word approach or acceptable alternative approach. The major drawback of this
format for the test constructor is the difficulty in saying what is being tested. Where
only one word is deleted, it may not be testing anything more than an ability to match
sounds with symbols. Test constructors should ensure that test takers cannot get
answers from reading alone without listening to the passages.





a) List the advantages and disadvantages of using multiple-choice questions in
assessing listening performance?
b) What decisions you have to make when using cloze-tests in assessing
listening performance?
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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When constructing listening comprehension tests, teachers have to understand and be
aware of the factors that affect listening performance. A students listening performance is
influenced by the characteristic of the method used. In other words, the way in which these
test method facets are designed and controlled has a great impact on test takers
performance. The characteristics of test methods tends to affect test scores and since it is
impossible to eliminate the effects of test methods, it is necessary to control them as much as
possible so that the tests will be appropriate for what they are used for. Factors that
commonly affect a students performance of listening comprehension include:

Text Genres,
Format of Test Items
Visual Cues


a) Text Genre

Among factors affecting listening comprehension, text genre
or text type has been noted as an important one. It is believed
that since conversational texts contain more redundant words,
have more pauses, and are often not well organised in syntax,
they are potentially easier to understand. On the other hand,
because most written texts contain less redundant words, use
fewer pauses than spoken texts, and are better organized in
syntax, they are potentially more difficult to understand. Do
you agree?

4.6 Factors Affecting Students Performance on Listening Tests
Shohamy and Inbar (1991) investigated the effects of THREE different genres on
listening comprehension scores for 150 third-year high school students in Israel.
Learners were divided into 3 groups and heard three different genres:

An Interview (a dialogue between two individuals)
A Lecture (monologue based on written notes)
News Broadcast (pre-written monologue)

Results:
a) Learners scored highest when listening to the the interview.
b) Learners scored second highest when listening to the lecture.
c) Learners scored lowest when listening to the news broadcast.

Generally, learners performed better on test questions that asked about the local
setting compared to more international information.

Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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b) Format of Test Items


Teachers developing listening tests should be aware that the format or type of test items used
have different effects on listening performance. The following are some of the research
findings showing how the format or type of test items used in a listening skills test affects
performance of learners:

Shohamy (1984) learners use different processing strategies when the test is a
multiple-choice format compared to the open-ended format.
Eykyn (1992) generally a listening test with multiple-choice questions produced
higher scores when compared to other formats.
Teng (1998) found that:
o different test question formats resulted in different test scores, despite
the fact that the content was identical
o multiple-choice questions resulted in higher scores, followed by short-
answer questions, and the cloze test resulted in the lowest scores.

Hence, these studies indicate that learners do modify their listening behaviour depending on
the types of test they are given.







Teng (1998) further found that text genres or text-types that contain high degree
of oral features such as such as repetition, redundancy, pause, interruption,
confirmation, colloquialism and sentence fragment tended to interfere with
listening comprehension processing.

Brown (1985), pointed out that listening material with headlines attracted
learners attention better. Also, descriptive texts are easier to understand than
expository ones. He also suggested that listening tests should not emphasise
learners memory or writing.

Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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c) Visual Cues


Visual cues play an important role in the listening performance of learners. Studies have
suggested that visual support can enhance listening comprehension. The following are
various studies that show that providing learners with visual cues enhances their listening
performance:

Rubin (1990) found that the listening comprehension of beginning language
students who watched dramas on videos improved significantly over students
who received no video support for their listening training. She concluded that
video could enhance listening comprehension if they were well-selected and
provided sufficient clues for information processing. However, it is the text
selected that is important and not just the use of videos alone.
Cheng (2000) found that students got better grades from picture format listening
tests compared to learners who did not have pictures in the listening tests.
Chen (2002) found that learners did better on listening tests in which the spoken
passage they were listening to was repeated and tests that used pictures.


















The Listening Comprehension section tests the candidates ability to listen for basic
interpersonal, instructional and academic purposes.

A number of sub-skills need to be developed in the daily classroom transaction. Given below
are some of the sub-skills of listening which need to be assessed in the formative and
summative assessments:

Listening for specific information
Listening for general understanding
Predictive listening
Inferential listening
4.7 Samples of The Listening Tests
a) To what extent does text genre affect listening performance?
b) How do the different formats of test questions affect listening performance?
c) Discuss the role of visual clues in listening tests.
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Listening for pleasure
Intensive listening
Evaluative listening

It is extremely important to keep in mind the factors listed below as they can significantly
influence the expected outcome of the Listening Test. Therefore, due care and attention must
be given to each of the following:

Size of the room
Seating arrangements
Acoustics of the room
Equipment used
Quality of the recording of the Listening Input
Quality of the oral rendering of the Listening Input (in case it is to be read aloud by
the Examiner), in terms of volume, clarity, enunciation, intonation, pace, etc
The common types of listening tests are as follows:



The following are some examples of listening skills tests:

Example 1:


Transcript (Read to students or Record it)








Short answer questions Students listen to a series of short texts, usually dialogues
and write responses to open-ended comprehension
questions
Gap-filling Students listen to an information text, twice and then fill in
an information grid
Short-answer questions Students listen to a longer text just once, and answer open-
ended comprehension question during pauses
Summaries Students listen to a news item twice, then answer summary-
style questions
Kathmandu, May 14: Thirteen Indians were among the 15 people killed
when their 20 -seater aircraft slammed into a cliff in western Nepal, less
than seven months after 10 Indian tourists were killed in an air accident.
Six people miraculously survived the crash.
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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A - There was an explosion before the crash
B - The crash was a consequence of collision with a cliff
C - There have been several air crashes in the recent past
D - Indians always die in the air crashes in and around Nepal


Example 2: This is about the garden of Darren.

Transcript (Read to students or Record it)












Circle the correct answer: A B C D
Example 3:
Wong Chen is fixing a doctors appointment. Listen to this dialogue and answer the
questions given in your sheet.

Darren does not want people walking on his lawn that he has nurtured
with great care.
What sign board should he put up?
.
A B C D
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Transcript: R = Receptionist W = Wong

Task
Fill in the information in the appointment book.

Doctor ________________________

Day and date __________________________
Time _______________________

Name of patient _________________________
Age _______________________

Referral Yes/No
If Yes, doctors name ____________________________
Contact person __________________________
Contact phone number __________________


R: Good morning, KVG Hospital. How can I help you?
W: I am Wong Chen. Id like an appointment with your cardiologist, Dr Suresh Reddy, please.
R: For when would you like the appointment?
W: For tomorrow?
R: Please hold the line. Ill check if I can fit you in tomorrow.
W: Sure, thanks.
R: Thanks for holding. Im afraid Dr Suresh is fully booked tomorrow. Would you like to see our
other cardiologist Dr Tan Chong instead?
W: Im sorry, but Id prefer to see Dr Suresh.
R: Thats all right. In that case, would you like an appointment with him for the day after?
W: Thatd be fine.
R: Would 12 noon suit you?
W: Sure.
R: Could I have your name and age?
W: Its Mr. Wong Chen, I am 65.
R: Is this your first visit to KVG?
W: Yes.
R: Are you consulting Dr Sureah on your physicians advice?
W: No, a friend of mine suggested I see him.
R: OK, Ive put you down for 12 noon, Friday, 15 September. Please be here by 11.30.
N: Thanks!
R: Youre welcome. Can I have your phone number, please?
N: 9940109932
R: Thank you, Mr Wong, have a nice day

Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Example 4:
Transcript:



State whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F)
Peoples fascination with the tigers is causing them harm.
Wildlife tourism should be banned.
Tigers tourists are destroying their living places.

Fill in the blanks with a word or phrase.
Wildlife tourism helps in ...........................................................................................................
Wise and responsible behaviour is expected from tourists who go for wild life
sightings ............................................................................................................................................







Tigers are being loved to death. Tourists desperate for a glimpse of a tiger are damaging habitat and
harassing tigers. This by no means decides that tiger tourism or wildlife tourism is a bad thing. Wildlife
tourism has a lot of advantages.
Wildlife tourism helps people of the area who get employ in tourism. In this way, wildlife is valued, rather than
poached, or encroached upon.
Wildlife also inspires the people who see it. For many, a dramatic view of one of the worlds great beasts a
tiger, a leopard, a whale is a life-changing experience. Such a sighting makes people aware of the fragility
of the planet and the folly of our short-term thinking. Above all, it prompts people to step back from our
traditional species chauvinism.
Wildlife tourism is similarly equivocal. When carried out with wisdom and responsibility, it is the best possible
news for the creatures and the people of the area, and for the people doing the touring. Wildlife tourism can
sometimes, with the best of intentions, be stupid, greedy and destructive. An adjustment of practice in Indias
wildlife tourism is a good thing. It is not tourists that are killing off tigers: it is, above all, the worlds ever-
increasing human population, and its incontinent need for room to live in. (231 words)
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

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Example 5:
Transcript:

Joy wants to live in a village near the city. It should be a small house with low doors and
ceilings. He would prefer it to be located near the sea. Which house would you recommend
for him?



A B C D
Tick the correct answer.

Example 6:
Transcript:

One day in 1924, five of us who were camping in the Cascade Mountains of Washington saw
a group of huge apelike creatures coming out of the woods. We retreated in terror and locked
ourselves in our cabin. The creatures pelted rocks against the walls of the cabin. All of us
inside were quaking in our shoes.

The number of campers
Place of camping..
Intimidated by..
Method of attack



Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

16




Introduction
Listening is a critical component of effective communication. Unfortunately, research
and case studies suggest that many of us are not very good at actively listening. This is
particularly important of the fact that many of us spend more time listening than they do
speaking or writing. This exercise provides you the opportunity to assess your listening
skills.

Instructions
The following statements reflect various habits we use when listening to others. For each
statement, indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with it by selecting one
number from the scale provided. Circle your response for each statement. Remember,
there are no right or wrong answers. After completing the survey, add up your total score
for the 17 items, and record it in the space provided.

Listening Skills Survey
1 = strongly disagree
2 = disagree
3 = neither agree nor disagree
4 = agree
5 = strongly agree

1. I daydream or think about other things when listening to others.
1 2 3 4 5

2. I do not mentally summarize the ideas being communicated by a speaker.
1 2 3 4 5

3. I do not use a speakers body language or tone of voice to help interpret what he or
she is saying.
1 2 3 4 5

4. I listen more for facts than overall ideas during classroom lectures.
1 2 3 4 5

5. I tune out dry speakers.
1 2 3 4 5

6. I have a hard time paying attention to boring people.
1 2 3 4 5

4.8 Self-Assessment Assessing Your Listening Skills
Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

17

7. I can tell whether someone has anything useful to say before he or she finishes
communicating a message.
1 2 3 4 5

8. I quit listening to a speaker when I think he or she has nothing interesting to say.
1 2 3 4 5

9. I get emotional or upset when speakers make jokes about issues or things that are
important to me.
1 2 3 4 5

10. I get angry or distracted when speakers use offensive words.
1 2 3 4 5

11. I do not expend a lot of energy when listening to others.
1 2 3 4 5

12. I pretend to pay attention to others even when Im not really listening.
1 2 3 4 5

13. I get distracted when listening to others.
1 2 3 4 5

14. I deny or ignore information and comments that go against my thoughts and
feelings.
1 2 3 4 5

15. I do not seek opportunities to challenge my listening skills.
1 2 3 4 5

16. I do not pay attention to the visual aids used during lectures.
1 2 3 4 5

17. I do not take notes on handouts when they are provided.
1 2 3 4 5
Total score _ _____

What is your score?
Use the following norms to evaluate your listening skills:

1734 = good listening skills
3553 = moderately good listening skills
5485 = poor listening skills

Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

18

How would you evaluate your listening skills?

Do you agree with the assessment of your listening skills? Why or why not?



SUMMARY
While assessing students level of spoken and written skills is a straightforward
process, finding ways to assess listening skills takes more time and lesson planning.

Listening tests typically resemble reading comprehension tests except that the student
listens to a passage instead of reading it.

The listening stimuli should represent typical oral language, and not consist of simply
the oral reading of passages designed to be written material.

Choose level-appropriate testing materials.

Give your students a specific task.

Expose your students to accents.

Use music to assess listening skills within various contexts.

Emphasis has been shifted to contextualized cues of listening comprehension,
including all the additional redundant features that facilitate comprehension.

Cloze tests come from reading tests based on the idea of reduced redundancy.

Teachers developing listening tests should be aware that the format or type of test
items used have different effects on listening performance.

Visual cues play an important role in the listening performance of learners.

Among factors affecting listening comprehension, text genre or text type has been
noted as an important one.



Chapter 4: Assessment of Listening

19

REFERENCES
Pamela Ann Ludwig ( 2012) How do I assess ESOL Listening skills? eHow.com

Gary Buck, (2001). Assessing Listening. London: Cambridge University Press

T. Jung, H. Osterwalder & D. Wipf (2000). Teaching and Assessinh Middle Years
Students Speaking and Listening Skills. Foundation for Research into Teaching.
Canada.

Assessment of Speaking and Listening Skills in English. CCE and CBSE. 2000.

Assessing Speaking and Listening. 2010. Lancashire County Council. England