“PAPER ASSESSING LANGUAGE SKILLS”

ASSESSING LISTENING SKILLS

Created by :

MUH. ADNAN DZAKY (22013046)

RIDHA MARDALENA (22013045)

AMI ASNAINI (22013040)

NURLIN LAELI (22013039)

ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH KENDARI

2023
A. Assessing Listening
Listening plays an important role in developing language skills because
listening is the main factor in communicating, because we listen first and then the
results of what we listen to will be revealed. Therefore it can be said that a good
speaker is a good listener too. Every teacher of language knows that one's oral
production ability--other than monologues, speeches, reading aloud, and the like-is
only as good as one's listening comprehension ability. But of even further impact is
the likelihood that input in the aural-oral mode accounts for a large proportion of
successful language acquisition.

1) Basic Types of Listening

Think about what you do when you listen. Literally in nanoseconds, the
following processes flash through your brain:

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 speaker is, location, purpose) and the content of
the message.
3) You use (bottom-up) linguistic decoding skills 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 (except for repetition tasks, which involve short-term memory
only), you delete the exact linguistic form in which the message was
originally received in favor of conceptually retaining important or relevant
information in long-term memory.

From these stages we can derive four commonly identified types of listening
peformance, each of which comprises a category within which to consider assessment
tasks and procedures.

1. Intensive. Listening for perception of the components (phonemes, words,

intonation, discourse markers, etc.) of a larger stretch of language.
2. Responsive. Listening to a relatively short stretch of language (a greeting,
question, command, comprehension check, etc.) in order to make an equally
short response.
3. Selective. Processing stretches of discourse such as short monologues for
several minutes in order to "scan" for certain information. The purpose of
 such performance is not necessarily to look for global or general meanings,
but to be able to comprehend designated information in a context of longer
stretches of spoken language (such as classroom directions from a teacher, TV
or radio news items, or stories). Assessment tasks in selective listening could
ask students, for example, to listen for names, numbers, a grammatical
category, directions (in a map exercise), or certain facts and events.
4. Extensive. Listening to develop a top-down, global understanding of spoken
language. Extensive performance ranges from listening to lengthy lectures to
listening to a conversation and deriving a comprehensive message or purpose.
Listening for the gist, for the main idea, and making inferences are all part of
extensive listening.

B.Sample of Test

1. DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: INTENSIVE 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 contexts. The focus in this section is
the microskills of intensive

listening.

Recognizing Phonological and Morphological Elements

A typical form of intensive listening at this level is the assessment of

recognition 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, as in the following two examples:

Phonemic pair, consonants

Test-takers hear: He’s from California

Test-takers read: (a) He’s from California
(b) She’s from California

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.

The example question above is a question whose target answer refers to the word
heard and then the listener will identify the word.

Paraphrase Recognition

The next step up on the scale of listening comprehension microskills is words,

phrases and sentences, which are frequently assessed by providing a stimulus
sentence and asking the test-taker to choose the correct paraphrase from a number of
choices.

Sentence paraphrase

Test-takers hear: Hellow, my name is 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.
In the above item, the idiomatic come from the phrase being tested. To add a little
context, conversation can be a stimulus task to which test-takers must respond with
the correct paraphrase.

2. DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: RESPONSIVE LISTENING

A question-and-answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower-

end listening tasks.

Appropriate response to a question

Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do your

homework?
Test-takers read: a) About $10.
b) About an hour.
c) Yes, I did.
(d) In about an hour.

The objective of this item is recognition of the wh-question how much and its
appropriate response. Distractors are chosen to represent common learner errors: (a)
responding to how much vs. how much longer; (c) confusing how much in reference
to time vs. the more frequent reference to money; (d) confusing a wh-question with a
yes/no question.

None of the tasks so far discussed have to be framed in a multiple-choice

format. They can be offered in a more open-ended framework in which test-takers
write or speak the response. The above item would then look like this:

Open-ended respond to a question

Test Takers hear: How much time did you take to do your
homework?
Test Takers write or speak: ............................................
If open-ended response formats gain a small amount of authenticity and creativity,
they of course suffer some in their practicality as teachers must then read students
responses and judge their appropriateness, which takes time.

3. DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: 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, or conversation and
simultaneously read the written text in which selected words or phrases have been
deleted. In its generic form, the test consists of a passage in which every nth word
(typically every seventh word) is deleted and the test-taker is asked to supply an
appropriate word In a listening cloze task, test-takers see a transcript of the passage
that they are lis tening to and fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they
hear.

One potential weakness of listening cloze techniques is that they may simply
become reading comprehension tasks. Test-takers who are asked to listen to a story
with periodic deletions in the written version may not need to listen at all, yet may
still be able to respond with the appropriate word or phrase. You can guard against
this eventuality if the blanks are items with high information load that cannot be
easily predicted simply by reading the passage. In the example below (adapted from
Bailey, 1998, p. 16), such a shortcoming was avoided by focusing only on the crite
rion of numbers. Test-takers hear an announcement from an airline agent and see the
transcript with the underlined words deleted:

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 PM. from gate sixty.
And flight sixteen-oh-three to Sacramento will depart from gate nineteen at ten-fifteen
P.M.
Test-takers write the missing words or phrases in the blanks.

Cloze procedure is most commonly associated with reading only. In its

generic form, the test consists of a passage in which every nth word (typically every
seventh word) is deleted, and the test-taker is asked to supply an appropriate word In
a listening cloze task, test-takers see a transcript of the passage that they are listening
to and fill in the blanks with the words or phrases that they hear.

My name is Adam. I always _____________ up at 7 o’clock in the morning then I

___________ my face and brush my teeth. After that, I do some _____________
then I put my clothes on and prepare my school bag. Next, I have my breakfast and
_________ for the school bus.

Information transfer

Selective listening can also be assessed through an information transfer

technique in which aurally processed information must be transferred to a visual repre
sentation, such as labeling a diagram, identifying an element in a picture, completing
a form, or showing routes on a map.
Test Takers see:

Test Takers hear: A) Three men are having a beer

B) Three bearded men are having a beer

The preceding example illustrates the need for test-takers to focus on just the
relevant information. The objective of this task is to test prepositions and
prepositional phrases of location (at the bottom, on top of around, along with larger,
smaller), so other words and phrases such as back yard, yesterday, last few seeds, and
scare away are supplied only as context and need not be tested. (The task also
presupposes, of course, that test-takers are able to identify the difference between a
bird and a squirrel!).

In another genre of picture-cued tasks, a number of people and/or actions are

presented in one picture, such as a group of people at a party. Assuming that all the
items, people, and actions are clearly depicted and understood by the test-taker
assessment may take the form of

 questions: "Is the tall man near the door talking to a short woman?"
 true/false: "The woman wearing a red skirt is watching TV"
 identification: "Point to the person who is standing behind the lamp." "Draw a
circle around the person to the left of the couch."

Sentence Repetition

The task of simply repeating a sentence or a partial sentence, or sentence

repetition, is also used as an assessment of listening comprehension. As in a dictation
(discussed below), the test-taker must retain a stretch of language long enough
reproduce it, and then must respond with an oral repetition of that stimulus Incorrect
listening comprehension, whether at the phonemic or discourse leve may be
manifested in the correctness of the repetition. A miscue in repetition= scored as a
miscue in listening. In the case of somewhat longer sentences, one cou argue that the
ability to recognize and retain chunks of language as well as thread of meaning might
be assessed through repetition.

4. DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: EXTENSIVE LISTENING

 Drawing a clear distinction between any two of the categories of listening
refer to here is problematic, but perhaps the fuzziest division is between selective and
extensive listening. As we gradually move along the continuum from smaller larger
stretches of language, and from micro- to macroskills of listening, the probability of
using more extensive listening tasks increases. Some important question about
designing assessments at this level emerge.

1) Can listening performance be distinguished from cognitive processing factor

such as memory, associations, storage, and recall?
2) As assessment procedures become more communicative, does the task take
into account test-takers' ability to use grammatical expectancies, lexical
collocations, semantic interpretations, and pragmatic competence?
3) Are test tasks themselves correspondingly content valid and authentic-the is,
do they mirror real-world language and context?
4) As assessment tasks become more and more open-ended, they more closely
resemble pedagogical tasks, which leads one to ask what the difference is
between assessment and teaching tasks. The answer is scoring: the former
imply specified scoring procedures, while the latter do not.

We will try to address these questions as we look at a number of extensive or

extensive listening comprehension tasks.

Dictation

Dictation is a widely researched genre of assessing listening comprehension.

In a dictation, test-takers hear a passage, typically of 50 to 100 words, recited three
times: first, at normal speed; then, with long pauses between phrases or natural word
groups, during which time test-takers write down what they have just heard; and
finally, at normal speed once more so they can check their work and proofread. Here
is a sample dictation at the intermediate level of English.

Dictation

First reading (natural speed, no pauses, test-takers listen for gist):

The state of California has many geographical areas. On the western side is the
Pacific Ocean with its beaches and sea life. The central part of the state is a large
fertile valley. The southeast has a hot desert, and north and west have beautiful
mountains and forests. Southern California is a large urban area populated by millions
of people.

Second reading (slowed speed, pause at each // break, test-takers write):

Pacific Ocean // with its beaches and sea life. // The central part of the state // is a

The state of California // has many geographical areas. // On the western side // is the
large fertile valley. // The southeast has a hot desert. // and north and west // have
beautiful mountains and forests. // Southern California // is a large urban area //
populated by millions of people.

Third reading (natural speed, test-takers check their work).

Dictations have been used as assessment tools for decades. Some readers still
cringe at the thought of having to render a correctly spelled, verbatim version of a
paragraph or story recited by the teacher. Until research on integrative testing was
published (see Oller, 1971), dictations were thought to be not much more than
glorified spelling tests. However, the required integration of listening and writing in a
dictation, along with its presupposed knowledge of grammatical and discourse
expectancies, brought this technique back into vogue.

Communicative Stimulus-Response Task

Another--and more authentic example of extensive listening is found in a

popular genre of the assessment task in which the test-taker is presented with a
stimulus monologue or conversation and then is asked to respond to a set of
comprehension questions.

Dialogue and multiple-choice comprehension items

Test-takers hear:

Directions: Now you will hear a conversation between Lynn and her doctor. You will
hear the conversation two times. After you hear the conversation the second time.
choose the correct answer for questions 11-15 below. Mark your answers on the
answer sheet provided.

Doctor: Good morning. Lynn what's the problem?

Lynn: Well, you see. I have a terrible headache, my nose is running. and I really
dizzy
Doctor: Okay. Anything else?
Lynn: I've been coughing. i think have a fever, and my stomach aches.
Doctor: I see when did this start?
Lynn: well let's see, I want to the lack last weekend, and after I returned home I
started sneezing.
Doctor: Hmm. You must have the flu. You should get lots of rest, drink hot
beverages, and stay warm: Do you follow me?
Lynn: Well, uh, yeah, but shouldn't take some medicine?
doctor: Sleep and rest are as good as a medicine when you have the flu.
Lynn: Okay, thanks, Dr. Brown

Test-takers read:
11. What is Lynn’s problem?
a) She feels horrible
b) She ran too fast all the lacks
c) She’s been drinking too many her beverages.
12. When did lynn’s problem start?
a) When she saw her doctor
b) Before she went to the lake
c) After she came from the lake
13. The doctors said that lynn
a) Flew to the leck last weekend
b) Must not get the flu
c) Probably has the flu
14. The doctor told lynn..........
a) To rest
b) To follow him
c) To take some medicine
15. According to Dr. Brown, sleep and rest are…….medicine when you have the flu.
a) more effective than
b) as effective as
c) less effective than

To compensate for the potential inauthenticity of post-stimulus comprehensi

questions, you might, with a little creativity, be able to find contexts where question
that probe understanding are more appropriate. Consider the following situation.

Dialogue and authentic questions on details

Test-takers hear:
You will hear a conversation between a detective and a man. The tape will play the
conversation twice. After you hear the conversation a second time, choose the correct
answers on your test sheet.

Detective: Where were you last night at eleven P.M., the time of the murder?
Man: Uh, let's see, well, I was just starting to see a movie.
Detective: Did you go alone?
Man: No, uh, well, I was with my friend, uh, Bill. Yeah, I was with Bill.
Detective: What did you do after that?
Man: We went out to dinner, then I dropped her off at her place.
Detective: Then you went home?
Man: Yeah.
Detective: When did you get home?
Man: A little before midnight.

Test-takers read:
7. Where was the man at 11:00 P.M.?
a) In a restaurant.
b) In a theater.
c) At home.
8. Was he with someone?
a) He was alone.
b) He was with his wife.
c) He was with a friend.
9. Then what did he do?
a) He ate out.
b) He made dinner.
c) He went home.
10. When did he get home?
a) About 11:00.
b) Almost 12:00.
c) Right after the movie.

11. The man is probably lying because (name two clues):

1. ……………..
2. ……………..

In this case, test-takers are brought into a little scene in a crime story. The quetions
following are plausible questions that might be asked to review fact and function in
the conversation.

Authentic Listening Tasks

Ideally, the language assessment field would have a stockpile of listening test
types that are cognitively demanding, communicative, and authentic, not to mention
interactive by means of an integration with speaking. Beyond the rubrics of intensive,
responsive, selective, and quasi-extensive com municative contexts described above,
can we assess aural comprehension in a truly communicative context? Can we, at this
end of the range of listening tasks, ascertain from test-takers that they have processed
the main idea(s) of a lecture, the gist of a story, the pragmatics of a conversation, or
the unspoken inferential data present in most authentic aural input? Can we assess a
test-taker's comprehension of humor idiom, and metaphor? The answer is a cautious
yes, but not without some conces sions to practicality. And the answer is a more
certain yes if we take the liberty of stretching the concept of assessment to extend
beyond tests and into a broader framework of alternatives. Here are some
possibilities.

1) Note-taking. In the academic world, classroom lectures by professors are

common features of a non-native English-user's experience. One form of a
midterm examination at the American Language Institute at San Francisco
State University (Kahn, 2002) uses a 15-minute lecture as a stimulus. One
among several response formats includes note-taking by the test-takers. These
notes are evaluated by the teacher on a 30-point system, as follows:

Scoring system for lecture notes

0-15 points
Visual representation: Are your notes clear and easy to read? Can you easily find
and retrieve information from them? Do you use the space on the paper to
visually represent ideas? Do you use indentation, headers, numbers, etc.?
0-10 points
Accuracy: Do you accurately indicate main ideas from lectures? Do you note
important details and supporting information and examples? Do you leave out
unimportant information and tangents?
0-5 points
Symbols and abbreviations: Do you use symbols and abbreviations as much as
possible to save time? Do you avoid writing out whole words, and do you avoid
writing down every single word the lecturer says?

The process of scoring is time consuming (a loss of practicality), and because

of the subjectivity of the point system, it lacks some reliability. But the gain is
offering students an authentic task that mirrors exactly what they have bee focusing
on in the classroom. The notes become an indirect but arguably valid for of assessing
global listening comprehension. The task fulfills the criteria of cognit demand,
communicative language, and authenticity.

2) Editing. Another authentic task provides both a written and a spoken stim
ulus, and requires the test-taker to listen for discrepancies. Scoring achieves
rela tively high reliability as there are usually a small number of specific
differences that must be identified. Here is the way the task proceeds.

Editing a written version of an aural stimulus

Test-takers read: the written stimulus material (a news report, an email from a
 friend, notes from a lecture, or an editorial in a newspaper).
Test-takers hear: a spoken version of the stimulus that deviates, in a finite number
of facts or opinions, from the original written form.
Test-takers mark: the written stimulus by circling any words, phrases, facts, or
opinions that show a discrepancy between the two versions.
One potentially interesting set of stimuli for such a task is the description of a
political scandal first from a newspaper with a political bias, and then from a radio
broadcast from an "alternative" news station. Test-takers are not only forced to listen
carefully to differences but are subtly informed about biases in the news.

3. Interpretive tasks. One of the intensive listening tasks described above was
paraphrasing a story or conversation. An interpretive task extends the stimulus
material to a longer stretch of discourse and forces the test-taker to infer a
response Potential stimuli include
 song lyrics,
 [recited] poetry.
 radio/television news reports, and
 an oral account of an experience.

Test-takers are then directed to interpret the stimulus by answering a few questions
(in open-ended form). Questions might be:

 "Why was the singer feeling sad?" "What events might have led up to the
reciting of this poem?"
 "What do you think the political activists might do next, and why?"
 "What do you think the storyteller felt about the mysterious disappearance of
her necklace?"

4. Retelling. In a related task, test-takers listen to a story or news event and

simply retell it, or summarize it, either orally (on an audiotape) or in writing.
In doing, test-takers must identify the gist, main idea, purpose, supporting
point and/or conclusion to show full comprehension. Scoring is partially
predetermine by specifying a minimum number of elements that must appear
in the retelling Again reliability may suffer, and the time and effort needed to
read and evaluate the response lowers practicality. Validity, cognitive
processing, communicative ability and authenticity are all well incorporated
into the task.
C. How to Assess
There are the different aspects that you should pay attention when assessing
listening, These factors can be called types of listening performance.

These are the four of them:

 Intensive: Listening for perceptions, phonemes, intonations and discourse

markers.
 Responsive: Listening to a short stretch of language so you can make an
equally short response
 Selective: This type of listening performance requires that the learner listen
for specific pieces of information.
 Extensive: Listening to lengthy lectures or conversation in order to get the
general idea of something. Listening for gist, listening for the main idea and
making inferences are part of effective listening.

Reference:

https://englishpost.org/how-to-assess-listening/