Assessing Listening

Summary

The video explores the concept of listening comprehension, emphasizing it as a two-part process involving both the act of listening and constructing meaning. It highlights key differences between spoken and written language, including sound-based delivery, loosely structured idea units, and real-time processing. The discussion covers challenges in testing listening, such as indirect assessment, skill overlap, and varied listener interpretations. Practical strategies for testing are presented, including dictation, comprehension questions, cloze tasks, and information transfer activities. The speaker recommends focusing on realistic spoken texts and automatic processing to assess core listening skills, while noting that communicative and context-specific elements can be added for advanced testing.

Takeaways

• 🗣️ Listening comprehension involves both understanding spoken language and constructing meaning through inference.
• 📚 Comprehension relies on two types of knowledge: linguistic (vocabulary, grammar) and non-linguistic (context, background knowledge).
• 🔊 Spoken language differs from written language: it is sound-based, fast, and requires understanding of phonological variations.
• 💬 Spoken discourse uses idea units rather than full sentences, with loose structure, idioms, slang, and self-corrections.
• ⏱️ Listening happens in real time, requiring automatic processing, and leaves only memory traces after hearing.
• 📝 Testing listening comprehension is indirect, relying on tasks to infer understanding rather than examining comprehension directly.
• ⚖️ Listening tests must consider the purpose of listening, which can lead to different interpretations by different listeners.
• 🤝 Listening occurs along a continuum of interaction from fully interactive dialogues to non-interactive listening, with most tests focusing on non-interactive forms.
• ✅ Effective listening tests target transactional language use (information conveyance) rather than interactional use (social interaction).
• 🛠️ Recommended tasks for testing include dictation, statement evaluation, short-answer questions, cloze tasks, and information transfer activities.
• 🎯 A core construct for listening tests is understanding extended, realistic language automatically in real time, including explicit information and clear inferences.
• 📈 Communicative testing expands the construct to include broader comprehension, but focusing on the core listening skills is sufficient for strong tests.

Q & A

What is listening comprehension according to the video script?

Listening comprehension is the process of understanding spoken language by constructing meaning, which involves both linguistic knowledge (vocabulary, grammar, discourse) and non-linguistic knowledge (context and background knowledge).

How does spoken language differ from written language?

Spoken language differs in three main ways: it comes through sound requiring knowledge of phonology, it has a different structure with short idea units and less embedding, and it occurs in real time, requiring automatic processing since it cannot be paused or re-read.

Why is listening comprehension considered an inferential process?

It is inferential because listeners must actively construct meaning from the spoken input, making inferences based on both linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge, rather than simply recognizing words or sentences.

What are the main challenges in testing listening comprehension?

Challenges include the indirect nature of measuring comprehension through tasks, confounding with other skills, variability in listener interpretations, differences in interaction types, and the technical difficulties of using audio recordings.

What types of listening tests are commonly used?

Common types include dictation, statement evaluation (yes/no or picture-based), comprehension questions (short-answer or multiple-choice), cloze/gap-fill tasks, and information transfer tasks involving diagrams or grids.

Why are most listening tests non-interactive?

Non-interactive tests are easier to administer and standardize because real-time interaction requires managing variable speaker-listener dynamics, which is more complex and difficult to control.

What is the difference between transactional and interactional language use in listening tests?

Transactional language is focused on conveying information, while interactional language emphasizes social interaction. Most listening tests focus on transactional language for practicality and clarity of assessment.

What constitutes a good basic construct for listening comprehension testing?

A good construct involves understanding extended, realistic spoken language, processing it automatically in real time, comprehending explicit linguistic information, and making unambiguous inferences from the content and context.

What recommendation is given regarding testing listening versus reading?

For general language comprehension, reading tests are simpler and more practical. Listening tests are recommended when assessing unique aspects of listening, such as fast, automatic processing of realistic spoken texts.

Which task type is recommended for testing deeper comprehension and why?

Short-answer comprehension questions are recommended because they are easier to create than multiple-choice questions and allow for assessment of understanding beyond surface-level recognition.

How can listening tests be adapted for specific contexts like academic listening?

Tests can include context-relevant materials, such as academic texts or realistic spoken passages, and tasks that reflect the typical listening situations of the target learners, while still focusing on the core listening construct.