Assessing Listening

Summary

The video script explains the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is a passive sensory experience, while listening involves actively interpreting and making sense of sounds. The brain processes sounds by matching them to known words, grouping them into phrases, and connecting them with prior knowledge. Listening assessments should reflect real-life scenarios, such as train station announcements. The script also discusses various listening tasks, from identifying key information to inferring a speaker's attitude, and emphasizes the complexity of designing fair and effective listening tests. The importance of listening as a skill and its role in communication is highlighted.

Takeaways

• 😀 Hearing is a passive sense that involves perceiving sound, while listening is an active process that requires interpreting and making sense of the sounds we hear.
• 😀 Our brains actively work to determine whether sounds are language and match them with words we already know.
• 😀 Listening involves grouping words into phrases, which helps us clarify the topic and meaning of what we're hearing.
• 😀 The brain connects what we hear with our pre-existing knowledge to understand the overall message.
• 😀 Listening is a complex skill that requires active engagement and is not just about receiving information.
• 😀 A good listening test should resemble real-life language use as much as possible for it to be meaningful and relevant.
• 😀 Listening tasks can involve identifying words, grammatical structures, or the speaker's attitude, based on the context.
• 😀 Different types of listening tasks may include summarizing the content, identifying main ideas, or understanding specific information.
• 😀 Listening assessments can be delivered in various formats such as live reading, audio recordings, or simulated discussions.
• 😀 When marking listening tests, it's important to decide on criteria such as whether to award partial credit or penalize spelling and grammatical errors.

Q & A

What is the difference between hearing and listening?

Hearing is a passive sensory process that involves perceiving sounds through the ear. Listening, on the other hand, is an active process that involves making sense of those sounds by interpreting and understanding them.

What role does the brain play in the listening process?

The brain decides whether the sounds are language, matches them with known words, groups them into phrases, and connects them to pre-existing knowledge to understand the overall message.

Why is listening considered an active skill despite being called a receptive one?

Listening is active because it requires the listener to engage in various cognitive processes, such as interpreting meaning, identifying attitudes, and drawing connections, rather than just passively hearing sounds.

What makes a good listening assessment?

A good listening assessment should resemble real-life language use as closely as possible. It should assess practical listening skills, such as understanding announcements or conversations in familiar contexts.

What types of tasks are used in listening tests?

Tasks in listening tests may include identifying words that sound alike, recognizing grammatical structures, deducing meanings of unknown words from context, summarizing main ideas, or interpreting the speaker's attitude.

How do listening tests assess comprehension in different ways?

Listening tests can involve various formats like multiple-choice questions, short answers, or longer written responses. Test-takers may listen to live readings, audio recordings, or simulated discussions.

What factors must be decided before scoring a listening test?

Before scoring, decisions need to be made about whether answers should be awarded single or multiple marks, whether partial credit is allowed, and whether spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes should be penalized.

What is the concept of 'weighting' in a listening test?

Weighting refers to assigning more marks to answers that are more difficult, allowing for a fairer reflection of the complexity of certain questions.

Why is it important to limit the number of correct answers to open-ended questions?

Limiting the number of possible correct answers helps make the marking process easier, more consistent, and fair for all test-takers.

Why is listening often considered the most difficult skill to test?

Listening is considered difficult to test because it involves multiple complex cognitive processes, such as comprehension, interpretation, and the ability to infer meaning from context, making it challenging to assess accurately.