ASSESSING
LISTENING and ASSESSING READING
OBSERVING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FOUR SKILL
Before focusing on listening itself, think about the two interacting concepts of performance and observation. All language users perform the acts of listening. Speaking, reading & writing. They of course rely on their underlying competence in order to accomplish these performances. When you propose to asses that person’s competence, but you observe the person’s performance.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING
Listening has often played second fiddle to its counterpart, speaking in the standardized testing industry, a number separate oral production test are available (Test of spoken English, Oral proficiency inventory and phone pass. to name several that are described chapter 7 of this book, but it is rare to find just a listening test. on reason for this emphasis is that listening is often implied as a component of speaking. in addition the overtly observable nature of speaking renders it more empirically measurable than listening.
We therefore need to pay close attention to listening as a mode of performance for assessment in the classroom in this chapter we will begin with basic principals and types listening, than move to a survey of task that can be used to assess listening.
BASIC TYPES of LISTENING
Ass all with effective test, designing appropriate assessment tasks in listening begins wait the specification of objectives, or criteria those objective may be classified in term of several types of listening performance.
1. You recognize speech sounds and hold a temporary “imprint” of them in short term memory.
2. You simultaneously determine the type of speech event (monologue, interpersonal dialogue, transactional dialogue) that is being processed and attend to its context (who the speakers is location purpose)
3. You use (bottom up) listening decoding skill and /or (top-down) background schemata to bring a plausible interpretation to the message and assign a literal and intended meaning to the utterance.
4. In most cases (expect for repetition task, which involve short-term memory only)
Each of these stages represents a potential assessment objective:
Comprehending of surface structure elements such as phonemes word intonation, or a grammatical categoryØ
understanding of pragmatic contextØ
determining meaning of auditory inputØ
developing the gist, a global or comprehensive understandingØ
From these stages we can derive four commonly identified types of listening performance, each of which comprises a category within which to consider assessment tasks and procedures.
1. intensive
2. Responsive
3. selective
4. extensive
INTENSIV LISTENING
Once you have determined objectives, your next step is to design the task including making decisions about how you will elicit performance and how you will expect the test-taker to respond. We will look at tasks that range from intensive listening performance, such as minimal phonemic pair recognition to extensive comprehension of language in communicative context. The focus in this section is on the micro skill of intensive listening.
Recognizing Phonological and Morphological Elements
A typical form of intensive listening at this level is the assessment of recognizing of phonological and morphological elements of language. A classic test task gives a spoken stimulus and asks test-takers to identify the stimulus from two or more choices.
PARAPHRASE RECOGNITION
The next step up on the scale of listening comprehension micro skills is words, phrases and sentences which are frequently assessed by providing a stimulus sentences and asking the test-taker to choose the correct paraphrase from a number of choices.
RESPONSIVE LISTENING
A question and answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower end listening tasks. The test-taker’s response is the appropriate answer to a question.
SELECTIVE LISTENING
A third type of listening performance is selective listening in which the test-taker listens to a limited quantity of aural input and must discern within it some specific information. A number of techniques have been used that require selective listening.
Listening Cloze
Listening cloze tasks (sometimes called cloze dictations or partial dictations) require the test-taker to listen to a story, monologue, on conversation and simultaneously read the written text in which selected words or phrases have been deleted. Cloze procedure is most commonly associated with reading only (see chapter 9). In its generic form, the test consists of a passage in which every nth word (typically every seventh word) is deleted and the text-taker is asked to supply an appropriate word. in a listening cloze task, test-taker see a transcript of the passage that they are to listening to and fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they hear.
Information Transfer
Selective listening can also be assessed through an information transfer technique in which aurally processed information must be transferred to a visual representation, such as labeling a diagram, identifying an element in a picture, completing a form, or showing routes on a map.
SENTENCE REPETITION
Sentence repetition is far from a flawless listening assessment task. buck (2001 p. 79) noted that that such tasks “are not just tests of listening, but tests of general oral skills”. Further, this tasks may tests only recognition of sounds, and it can easily be contaminated by lack of short-term memory ability, thus invalidating it as an assessment toning comprehension error from an oral production error. therefore, sentence repetition tasks should be used with caution.
Before focusing on listening itself, think about the two interacting concepts of performance and observation. All language users perform the acts of listening. Speaking, reading & writing. They of course rely on their underlying competence in order to accomplish these performances. When you propose to asses that person’s competence, but you observe the person’s performance.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING
Listening has often played second fiddle to its counterpart, speaking in the standardized testing industry, a number separate oral production test are available (Test of spoken English, Oral proficiency inventory and phone pass. to name several that are described chapter 7 of this book, but it is rare to find just a listening test. on reason for this emphasis is that listening is often implied as a component of speaking. in addition the overtly observable nature of speaking renders it more empirically measurable than listening.
We therefore need to pay close attention to listening as a mode of performance for assessment in the classroom in this chapter we will begin with basic principals and types listening, than move to a survey of task that can be used to assess listening.
BASIC TYPES of LISTENING
Ass all with effective test, designing appropriate assessment tasks in listening begins wait the specification of objectives, or criteria those objective may be classified in term of several types of listening performance.
1. You recognize speech sounds and hold a temporary “imprint” of them in short term memory.
2. You simultaneously determine the type of speech event (monologue, interpersonal dialogue, transactional dialogue) that is being processed and attend to its context (who the speakers is location purpose)
3. You use (bottom up) listening decoding skill and /or (top-down) background schemata to bring a plausible interpretation to the message and assign a literal and intended meaning to the utterance.
4. In most cases (expect for repetition task, which involve short-term memory only)
Each of these stages represents a potential assessment objective:
Comprehending of surface structure elements such as phonemes word intonation, or a grammatical categoryØ
understanding of pragmatic contextØ
determining meaning of auditory inputØ
developing the gist, a global or comprehensive understandingØ
From these stages we can derive four commonly identified types of listening performance, each of which comprises a category within which to consider assessment tasks and procedures.
1. intensive
2. Responsive
3. selective
4. extensive
INTENSIV LISTENING
Once you have determined objectives, your next step is to design the task including making decisions about how you will elicit performance and how you will expect the test-taker to respond. We will look at tasks that range from intensive listening performance, such as minimal phonemic pair recognition to extensive comprehension of language in communicative context. The focus in this section is on the micro skill of intensive listening.
Recognizing Phonological and Morphological Elements
A typical form of intensive listening at this level is the assessment of recognizing of phonological and morphological elements of language. A classic test task gives a spoken stimulus and asks test-takers to identify the stimulus from two or more choices.
PARAPHRASE RECOGNITION
The next step up on the scale of listening comprehension micro skills is words, phrases and sentences which are frequently assessed by providing a stimulus sentences and asking the test-taker to choose the correct paraphrase from a number of choices.
RESPONSIVE LISTENING
A question and answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower end listening tasks. The test-taker’s response is the appropriate answer to a question.
SELECTIVE LISTENING
A third type of listening performance is selective listening in which the test-taker listens to a limited quantity of aural input and must discern within it some specific information. A number of techniques have been used that require selective listening.
Listening Cloze
Listening cloze tasks (sometimes called cloze dictations or partial dictations) require the test-taker to listen to a story, monologue, on conversation and simultaneously read the written text in which selected words or phrases have been deleted. Cloze procedure is most commonly associated with reading only (see chapter 9). In its generic form, the test consists of a passage in which every nth word (typically every seventh word) is deleted and the text-taker is asked to supply an appropriate word. in a listening cloze task, test-taker see a transcript of the passage that they are to listening to and fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they hear.
Information Transfer
Selective listening can also be assessed through an information transfer technique in which aurally processed information must be transferred to a visual representation, such as labeling a diagram, identifying an element in a picture, completing a form, or showing routes on a map.
SENTENCE REPETITION
Sentence repetition is far from a flawless listening assessment task. buck (2001 p. 79) noted that that such tasks “are not just tests of listening, but tests of general oral skills”. Further, this tasks may tests only recognition of sounds, and it can easily be contaminated by lack of short-term memory ability, thus invalidating it as an assessment toning comprehension error from an oral production error. therefore, sentence repetition tasks should be used with caution.
EXTENSIVE LISTENING
Drawing a clear distinction between any two of the categories of listening referred to hear is problematic, but perhaps the fuzziest division is between selective and extensive listening. As we gradually move along the continuum from smaller to larger stretches of language, and from micro- to macro skill of listening. the probability of using more extensive listening task increases.
Drawing a clear distinction between any two of the categories of listening referred to hear is problematic, but perhaps the fuzziest division is between selective and extensive listening. As we gradually move along the continuum from smaller to larger stretches of language, and from micro- to macro skill of listening. the probability of using more extensive listening task increases.
Assessing Reading Proficiency
Reading
ability is very difficult to assess accurately. In the communicative competence
model, a student's reading level is the level at which that student is able to
use reading to accomplish communication goals. This means that assessment of
reading ability needs to be correlated with purposes for reading.
Reading Aloud
A
student's performance when reading aloud is not a reliable indicator of that
student's reading ability. A student who is perfectly capable of understanding
a given text when reading it silently may stumble when asked to combine
comprehension with word recognition and speaking ability in the way that
reading aloud requires.
In
addition, reading aloud is a task that students will rarely, if ever, need to
do outside of the classroom. As a method of assessment, therefore, it is not
authentic: It does not test a student's ability to use reading to accomplish a
purpose or goal.
However,
reading aloud can help a teacher assess whether a student is "seeing"
word endings and other grammatical features when reading. To use reading aloud
for this purpose, adopt the "read and look up" approach: Ask the
student to read a sentence silently one or more times, until comfortable with
the content, then look up and tell you what it says. This procedure allows the
student to process the text, and lets you see the results of that processing
and know what elements, if any, the student is missing.
Comprehension Questions
Instructors
often use comprehension questions to test whether students have understood what
they have read. In order to test comprehension appropriately, these questions
need to be coordinated with the purpose for reading. If the purpose is to find
specific information, comprehension questions should focus on that information.
If the purpose is to understand an opinion and the arguments that support it,
comprehension questions should ask about those points.
In
everyday reading situations, readers have a purpose for reading before they
start. That is, they know what comprehension questions they are going to need
to answer before they begin reading. To make reading assessment in the language
classroom more like reading outside of the classroom, therefore, allow students
to review the comprehension questions before they begin to read the test
passage.
Finally,
when the purpose for reading is enjoyment, comprehension questions are beside
the point. As a more authentic form of assessment, have students talk or write
about why they found the text enjoyable and interesting (or not).
Authentic Assessment
In
order to provide authentic assessment of students' reading proficiency, a
post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might
put information they have gained through reading.
- It must have a purpose other than assessment
- It must require students to demonstrate their level of reading comprehension by completing some task
To
develop authentic assessment activities, consider the type of response that
reading a particular selection would elicit in a non-classroom situation. For
example, after reading a weather report, one might decide what to wear the next
day; after reading a set of instructions, one might repeat them to
someone else; after reading a short story, one might discuss the story line
with friends.
Use
this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-reading tasks. You
can then develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to evaluate each
student's comprehension of specific parts of the text. See Assessing Learning for more on
checklists and rubrics.
