ASSESSING LISTENING

Although listening is a very important skill to develop, this area is one of the least developed ones. This is a process that is given internally, which makes it difficult to observe and study. In order to teach and assess listening skills, we must be aware of the latest theoretical models of listening. We are following Davis Nunan´s theories into consideration.

According to Nunan, the processing of this skill may be bottom-up or top-down. In bottom-up processing, it is data-driven, linear. Comprehension takes place when learners take and decode phonemes, words, chunks of words, and later sentences, decode them, and link them with other ones.

In top-down listening, meaning is built upon input using background knowledge of situation and context.

APPROACHES TO LISTENING ASSESSMENT

Three major approaches to assess the skill of listening are described.

a. Discrete-point approach, along with the audiolingual method, where two beliefs were the rationale: being able to isolate one element from the stream of speech, and belief that spoken and written language were the same, except for one was presented orally. Tests assessed language knowledge by separating elements, using common question types such as responsive evaluation, phonemic discrimination, or paraphrase recognition.

b. Integrative approach assesses capability to use many little parts at the same time. Tests used dictation and cloze items.

c. Communicative approach assesses capability to understand the messageand then use it in context. Tests include authentic communicative question formats.

General and academic listening are separates with a taxonomy of micro-skills.

DESIGNING LISTENING TASKS

Before we design listening tasks, we must consider the course objectives. Also, we should focus on meaning rather than on form. Other aspects we must consider are background knowledge, test content (take texts you like and infuse oral characteristics into them,), vocabulary (lexical overlap can affect difficulty), test structure (questions in the order information is heard), formats (do not use new formats in tests), item writing (place items separately to give time to respond, frame new sections, record specific instructions.), timing (give time for pre reading the question.), and skill contamination, or skill integration (first read the question,then write the answer.)

TECHNIQUES FOR ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

-Phonemic discrimination

-Paraphrase recognition

-Objective formats: MCQs and T/F, short answer questions, cloze, dictation.

-Information Transfer tasks (transfer information to a chart or visual)

-Note-taking

LISTENING TEST DELIVERY

The equipment used, as well as the conditions of the room where the test is taken influence in the validity and reliability of the test. The modes of delivery used may also affect these. Also, non standard procedures.

SCORING

The most reliable tests are are dichotomous scoring.