Chapter 6: Listening comprehension tests pptx

General Careful selected practice material  an effective way of developing listening skill  used for testing listening comprehension  an awareness of ways in which the spoken l

Chapter 6:

Listening comprehension tests

I General

 Careful selected practice material

 an effective way of developing listening skill

 used for testing listening comprehension

 an awareness of ways in which the spoken

language differs from the written language is

crucially important in testing listening

comprehension skills

 some conventional features such as

repetition, hesitation and grammatical

patterns are essential for the understanding

of spoken English

 the tape recorder is the only way of ensuring compete uniformity of presentation and thus

a high degree of reliability

 auditory tests are divided into two broad

categories: (i) tests of phoneme

discrimination and of sensitivity to stress

and intonation, and (ii) tests of listening

comprehension

II Phoneme discrimination tests

 Type 1: The test consists of a picture,

accompanied by three or four words spoken by the examiner in person or tape.

 Type 2: The testees hear three sentences and

have to indicate which are the same and which are different.

 Type 3: Testees are required to choose the

written word which corresponds to the spoken word.

purposes, enabling the teacher to concentrate later on specific pronunciation

same L1 background & when a contrastive

analysis of L1 & L2 can be used.

III Tests of stress and intonation

Tests of stress and intonation: less

satisfactory than the phoneme discrimination tests b/c of # reasons:

 Most tests are impure as they test other

skills at the same time.

 These items are artificial as they test

rarer but more testable features.

IV Statements and dialogues

These tests designed to measure:

how well students can understand short samples of speech

how well they deal with a variety of signals on lexical and grammatical levels of phonology

TYPE 1

 included in a grammar test, reading test or listening test , depending on whether the item is written or spoken

 testing ability to understand both

the grammatical and lexical features

of a short utterance (Candidates

hear a statement and choose the

best option from the four ones)

TYPE 2

 These items are an attempt to simulate

speech situations (so they are more

satisfactory that those of type 1)

 Testees listen to a short question and

have to select the correct response from a choice of four printed ones (part II,

TOEIC)

V Testing comprehension

through visual materials

 These item types more appropriate for the elementary stages of learning English.

 Pictures, maps and diagrams  used

effectively for testing.

 Testees’ performance: less dependent

on other skills like reading & speaking and vocabulary

TYPE 1

with spoken statements.

testees listen & pick out true & false statements.

(page 71)

TYPE 2

testees; they listen to 4

statements & they’re required to choose the appropriate picture

being described

(page 72)

TYPE 3

used in a number of listening tests

testees see a set of three or

TYPE 4

Simple diagrams (lines,

squares, rectangles, circles & triangles) used in a test of

elementary comprehension

Candidates look at each of the

4 diagrams and then hear a

series of statements about

each diagram (page 73)

TYPE 5

used to access testees’ ability to understand instruction

e.g Tasks in C4 Interactions I

maps can be used or adapted for testing (p.74-75)

ability to understand instruction

Useful for ordinary classroom

purposes, but difficult to administer in public exams

VI Understanding talks and lectures

Items of this type

 very common & used to test

students’ ability to understand

both informal talks and formal

lectures –an important skill

 English learners at intermediate and advanced levels

TYPE 1 & 2

 Testees listen to a short talk &

select the correct answer about the talk

 Testees listen to a short talk &

read a summary containing

blanks; then they must complete the blanks (pages 82-83)

TYPE 3&4

 Hearing a short talk or lecture &

answering questions on it e.g multiple – choice items, true/false

items & incomplete sentences

 the content of the text itself 

determine the type of item

(1) Completion  not recommended

as testees facing with the tasks of listening, reading and writing

simultaneously- an extremely

difficult task even for native

speakers

(2) Multiple – choice items may

cause confusion because testees have to listen while reading all

options carefully to make their

selection

(3) It’s best to use true/false items since this reduces the amount of reading and

selection to be made