ASSESSMENT OF LISTENING Compiled Presented by ELT SUPERVISOR
ASSESSMENT OF LISTENING Compiled & Presented by ELT SUPERVISOR ABDUL HALIM HAMED GHANDER
OVERVIEW • Reflect on assessment of listening • Overview of formative and summative assessment • Examine different formative assessment tasks and instruments for listening development • Clarification questions on tasks/instruments presented • Consider some fundamental criteria formative and summative assessment of listening • Questions and answers
Listening Assessment Checklist to guide listening performance
WHEN DO WE ASSESS LISTENING ? HOW ? ACTIVITY • During a unit of study: quizzes • After completion of a unit: unit/achievement test • At the end of a course: final exam
Imagine---- • A student is listening to a recording in class. • The speaker says “I won't go to London”. • The student interprets this as “I want to go to London. ” What is the source of this error?
§ Diagnose: The student is making a small mistake based on phoneme discrimination. § Impact: This mistake may affect the interpretation of what comes next as a whole. § Solution: We should view the principal aim of a full length listening session as "Diagnostic". -It should provide us with insights into where understanding has broken down -Designing a small- scale remedial exercises which aims to prevent errors of interpretations.
What are the differences between formative and summative assessment?
Differences between formative and summative assessment Formative assessment What? Why? When? How? By whom? Decisio n to make? Summative assessment
Differences between formative and summative assessment Formative assessment Summative assessment What? *All objectives of the unit, a few at a time. *Selected course/program objectives, *Learning processes. representative of the level assessed. * Determine level for placement purposes. Why? *Provide feedback to student and teacher on progress in learning. *Course pass/failure. *Determine need for and/or type of *Certification remediation required. When? *Continuous, as part of regular learning * Periodic, at end of a course or program. activities. *Standardized tests (norm-referenced). How? *Observation *Checklists * Achievement/Placement/Proficiency tests. *Portfolios *Teacher By *Teacher * Institution whom *Student *Peer *Educational jurisdiction (school board ? , government). Decisio *Adjust teaching procedures. *Award credits (promotion). n to *Adapt learning activities. * Certification. make? *Provide individual remediation on *Program evaluation. strategies and/or targeted skill(s).
ASSESSMENT & LEARNING • Assessment need not be stand-alone activity at odds with teaching & learning; it can be a form of inquiry that accompanies daily practices and interactions; • Teachers are implicated in this process through support and the systematic and tailored feedback they provide; • Learners are expected to move toward their own source of feedback/support, guiding themselves more independently. • (Poehner, Foreign Language Classroom Assessment in Support of Teaching and Learning)
METACOGNITION AND FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT • Metacognition can best be enhanced with formative assessment (low-stakes activities that provide teachers with feedback on level of student understanding) (Lang, 2012) • Learners experience greater success in listening comprehension and weaker learners benefit most (Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari, 2010)
GUIDE FOR LISTENING • Worksheet that can be used with any listening text • Emphasizes the ‘top-down’ dimension of listening • Teacher contextualizes students by: • –Informing students of the topic, or • –Engaging students in a discussion of the topic, or • –Preceding the listening activity with a reading activity on the same general topic.
Issues in listening assessment • Validity: To what degree does it accurately measure what you want to measure? • Reliability: To what degree is it dependable? • Authenticity: To what degree is it representative of real-life language use? • Washback: To what degree does it provide useful feedback for the learner and influence the teaching process? • (Brown and Abeywickrama, 2010)
Validity in listening assessment • measure comprehension (not hearing, spelling, prior knowledge of a topic or reading long multiple choice questions) • reflect the learning objectives and listening tasks of the unit/course
Reliability in listening assessment • Minimize anxiety • Ensure all learners can hear/see the text/video equally and that there are no distracting noises • Avoid ambiguous or ‘trick’ test items • Ensure more than one scorer for correcting openended test items • Critical to high-stakes exams
Authenticity In Listening Assessment • Use texts with authentic, real-life speech • Avoid using texts that are dense and cognitively demanding (meant to be read and not listened to) • Choose comprehension tasks that reflect reallife purposes for listening • Avoid difficult accents and dialects
Washback In Assessing Listening • Impact of assessment on classroom teaching • Potential of assessment to provide feedback for future learning
Questions • take a few minutes to ask questions in chat and I will try to cover some recurrent themes in my responses
THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING (1) often implied as a component of speaking, (2) input in the successful of language acquisition, (3) applicable in many fields: workplace, education, home-context. Assessment of listening must be made because we neither observe the actual act of listening nor the product
LISTENING • Listening is receptive skills • The importance of listening: 1. often implied as a component of speaking, 2. input in the successful of language acquisition, 3. applicable in many fields: workplace, education, home-context. • Assessment of listening must be made because we neither observe the actual act of listening nor the product
WHAT MAKES LISTENING DIFFICULT? • Clustering: • Redundancy • Reduced forms • Performance variables • Colloquial language • Rate of delivery • Stress, rhythm, and intonation • Interaction
BASIC TYPES OF LISTENING • Heaton (1988) argued that developing listening skills can be done through a listening comprehension test. • He, therefore, listed the two categories of auditory test: 1) Test of phoneme discrimination and of sensitivity to stress and intonation 2) Test of listening comprehension • Brown (2004) stated that effective test or appropriate assessment designing must begun with the specification of objectives or criteria which can be classified on several types of listening performance.
THE PERFORMANCE OF LISTENING Intensive understanding pragmatic context Extensive determining meaning of auditory input Selective O R C AM M I C R O comprehending language structure elements developing the gist, a global/comprehensive understanding Responsive
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTENSIVE LISTENING • Phonological and morphological elements recognition • Paraphrase recognition
PHONOLOGICAL & MORPHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS RECOGNITION
Phonemic pair, consonant Test-takers hear: He’s from California. Test-takers read: (a) He’s from California. (b) She’s from California. Phonemic pair, vowels Test-takers hear: Is he living? Test-takers read: (a) Is he leaving? (b)Is he living?
Phoneme discrimination, pictures Test-takers see the pictures Test-takers hear: (a) pin (b) pen (c) pair (d) pain (a) shark (b) shock (c) sack (d) lack (a) thin (b) tin (c) fin (d) din
Test-takers see the pictures Test-takers hear: 1. Pain – pain 2. Sock – sock
Morphological pair, -ed ending • Test-takers hear: I missed you very much. • Test-takers read: (a) I missed you very much. (b) I miss you very much.
Stress pattern in (can’t ) : Test-takers hear: My friend can’t go to the party. Test-takers read: (a) My friend can’t go to the party. (b) My friend can go to the party. One-word stimulus Test-takers hear: vine Test-takers read: (a) vine (b) wine
PARAPHRASE RECOGNITION
Sentence paraphrase Test-takers hear: Hello, my name’s Keiko. I come from Japan. Test-takers read: (a) Keiko is comfortable in Japan. (b) Keiko wants to come to Japan. (c) Keiko is Japanese. (d) Keiko likes Japan. Dialogue paraphrase Test-takers hear: Man : Hi, Maria, my name’s George. Women: Nice to meet you, George. Are you American? Man : No, I’m Canadian. Test-takers read: (a) George lives in the United States. (b) George is American. (c) George comes from Canada. (d) Maria is Canadian.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: RESPONSIVE LISTENING • Appropriate response to question • Open-ended response to a question
APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS
Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do your homework? Test-takers read: (a) (b) (c) (d) in about an hour. about $10. Yes, I did. Test-takers hear: Does Allison mind you playing the piano? Test-takers read: (a) yes, she’s always thinking about it. (b) no, she rather likes it (c) no, she doesn’t play the piano. (d) yes, she must be careful.
OPEN-ENDED RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS
Test-takers hear : How much time did you take to do your homework? Test-takers write/ speak
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: SELECTIVE LISTENING • Listening cloze • Information transfer • Sentence repetition
LISTENING CLOZE
Test-takers hear: Ladies and gentlemen, I now have some connecting gate information for those of you making connections to other flights out of San Francisco. Flight seven-oh-six to Portland will depart from gate seventy-three at nine-thirty P. M Flight ten-forty-five to Reno will depart at nine-fifty P. M. from gate seventeen. Flight four-forty to Monterey will depart at nine-thirty-five P. M. from gate sixty. And flight sixteen-oh-three to Sacramento will depart from gate nineteen at ten-fifteen. Test-takers write the missing words or phrases in the blanks.
INFORMATION TRANSFER
Multiple-picture-cued selection
Based on the picture below, the test takers have to pick out the true spoken statement and write T at the side of the appropriate numbers. Then, write F at the side of the numbers of the false statements. Test takers hear: 1. The lorry’s on the left of the motorcyclist. ( ) 2. The car’s travelling in the same direction. ( ) 3. A dog’s running in front of the car. ( )
In the following listening tests students, the test takers, have five pictures in front of them. They listen to four sentences, at the end of which they are required to select the appropriate picture being described. The test takers hear: Both car doors are open. It’s daylight but both headlamps are on. The man who’s repairing the car is lying underneath it. Although the girl sees the man working hard, she doesn’t help him.
Thus the test takers are able to narrow down the choice available to them as follows: 1. B C D E 2. B D E 3. B D 4. D (only A shows one door open) (only C shows the headlamps off) ( only E shows the man standing up) ( only B shows the girl helping the man) Single-picture-cued verbal multiple-choice Test-takers see: a photograph of a woman in a laboratory setting, with no glasses on, squinting through a microscope with her right eye, and with her left eye closed. Test-takers here: (a) She’s speaking into a microphone. (b) She’s putting on her glasses. (c) She has both eyes open. (d) She’s using a microscope.
Chart-filling Test-takers hear: Now you will hear information about Lucy’s daily schedule. The information will be given twice. The first time just listen carefully. The second time, there will be a pause after each sentence. Fill in Lucy’s blank daily schedule with the correct information. The example has already been filled in. You will hear: Lucy gets up at eight o’clock every morning except on weekends. You will fill in the schedule to provide the information. Now listen to the information about Lucy’s schedule. Remember, you will first hear all the sentences; then you will hear each sentence separately with time to fill in your chart. Lucy gets up at eight o’clock every morning except on weekends. She has English on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at ten o’clock. She has History on Tuesdays and Thursdays at two o’clock. She takes Chemistry on Monday from two o’clock to six o’clock. She plays tennis on weekends at four o’clock. She eats lunch at twelve o’clock every day except Saturday and Sunday. Now listen a second time. There will be a pause after each sentence to give you time to fill in the chart.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: EXTENSIVE LISTENING • Dictation • Communicative stimulus-response tasks • Authentic listening tasks
DICTATION
COMMUNICATIVE STIMULUS-RESPONSE TASKS
Dialogue and multiple choice comprehension items
The test takers read: 1. What is Lynn’s problem? (a) She feels horrible. (b) She ran too fast at the lake. (c) She’s been drinking too many hot beverages. 2. When did Lynn’s problem start? (a) When she saw her doctor. (b) Before she went to the lake. (c) After she came home from the lake.
AUTHENTIC LISTENING TASKS
a. Note-taking This is usually done by the students of non-native English users while listening to the classroom lecturers by professors. Their notes will be evaluated in such a way so that it lacks some reliability. b. Editing
d. Interpretive tasks The tasks extend the stimulus material to a longer stretch of discourse and forces the test-takers to infer a response by answering a few questions in the open-ended form. The potential stimuli can be used are song lyrics, poetry (recite), radio/ tv news reports and oral account of experience. e. Retelling The test takers listen to a story or news event and simply retell it or summarize orally or written. In order to show a full comprehension, the test takers require to identify the main idea, purpose and supporting details.
Microskills for Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing Each of the four areas of language proficiency involves a variety of microskills. These skills are often overlooked by teachers as an area of instructional focus; however, ELLs may not have had opportunities to acquire these skills. They may need direct instruction and time to use the skills in order to fully participate in the classroom lessons. Examples of microskills in each area are provided below, although the lists are by no means comprehensive.
Listening • Retain chunks of language in short-term memory. • Discriminate between the distinctive sounds of English. • Recognize reduced forms of words. • Process speech at different rates of delivery. • Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables. • Recognize grammatical word classes (e. g. , nouns and verbs), systems (e. g. , tense, agreement, and pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
• Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse. • Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations, participants, and goals. • From events, ideas, etc. described, predict outcomes, infer links and connections between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification. • Distinguish between literal and implied meaning. • Develop means of retaining information
REFERENCES • Brown, H. D. 2004. Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. • Fang, x. 2008. Listening Comprehension in EFL Teaching. Us -china foreign language. 6 (52): 21 -31. • Heaton, J. B. 1988. Writing English Language Tests (new edition). London: Longman. • O’malley, J. M. & Chamot, A. U. 1989. Listening Comprehension Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Applied linguistics. 10 (4): 418 -437.
THANK YOU
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