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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, YOUTH AND SPORTS OF UKRAINE IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

TESTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION AT THE INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

COURSE PAPER PRESENTED BY Yuzefiv Iryna Ina -41 a fourth year student of the English department SUPERVISED BY Datsko Yuliya Myhailivna an associate professor of the English department

LVIV 2013

Theme: Testing listening comprehension at the intermediate level

CONTENTS

Introduction.............................3 Chapter 1. Fundamental considerations in testing listening 1.1. Basic developments of testing listening..........................................6 1.2. Pros and cons of testing listening ...............................................8 Chapter 2. Testing listening techniques 2.1. Multiple-choice items..................................................................11 2.2. Open-Ended Questions ...............................................................12 2.3. Paraphrase and Summary ...................................................13 2.4. Dictation .................................................................................16 2.5. Cloze test ................................................................18 2.6. True-false items ..............................................................20 Conclusion...................................................23 References..........................................25

ITRODUCTION

Listening has received increasing attention from professionals in recent years. The digital revolution has made spoken language much easier to record, edit, and share. Digital communications and travel raise the chances of needing to communicate in a second language, making that language much less "foreign." Still, despite being increasingly important, understanding what someone says in a second language remains a challenge. What also gives the origin for the topicality in given course paper. Acquiring good listening and speaking skills in English is the main concern of many second and foreign language learners, and todays English teacher needs to go along with current approaches to the teaching of the oral skills. Language listening relatively ignored for many years within applied linguistics, has today become a kind of an activity which cannot be neglected. Now listening plays a more central role in language teaching. University entrance exams, school leaving tests, and other examinations have included a listening component, an acknowledgment that listening ability is an important aspect of language proficiency. It is much easier today to understand the nature of listening comprehension. Earlier views of listening saw it as the mastery of skills, which formed the focus of teaching and testing. A skills approach focused on such things as discriminating sounds in words (especially phonemic contrasts), deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words, predicting content, differentiating between fact and opinion, and noting contradictions, inadequate information, and ambiguities. [ 7 ] The changed status of listening in recent years was partly prompted by Krashens emphasis on the role of comprehension and comprehensible input in triggering language development. In the 1980s and 1990s, applied linguists also began to borrow new theoretical models of comprehension from the field of cognitive psychology. It was from this source that the distinction between bottom-up processing and top-down

processing was derived a distinction that led to an awareness of the importance of background knowledge and schema in comprehension. Listeners were viewed as actively involved in constructing meaning based on expectations, inferences, intentions, prior knowledge, and selective processing of the input. Listening came to be viewed as an interpretive process. At the same time, the fields of conversation analysis and discourse analysis were revealing a great deal about the organization of spoken discourse, leading to a realization that written texts read aloud could not provide a suitable basis for developing the abilities needed to process real-time authentic discourse. Authenticity in materials became a catchword and part of a pedagogy of teaching listening that is now well established. The object of this course paper is testing listening comprehension of intermediate level learners. The subject is the list and complex of exercises for testing listening comprehension at the intermediate level. The aim of given course paper is to design methodological exercises for testing listening comprehension at the intermediate level. The main tasks of the course paper are to : Find out pros and cons of testing listening comprehension Work out exercises for testing listening comprehension Point out the basic developments of testing listening The practical value of this paper work is in the designing of exercises for testing listening comprehension at the intermediate level. The theoretical value of given paper work is in the following theoretical and critical works: Arthur Hughes Testing for Language Teachers [10], John Flowerdew Second Language Listening [7], Irene Thompson Testing Listening Comprehension [18], G.Brown Teaching the Spoken Language[4], G. Buck The Testing of Listening Comprehension[5].

The structure of the paper work is built according to the research objectives and tasks set as an aim. The structure comprises: introduction and two chapters designated for analysis of testing listening at the intermediate level. Introduction justifies the topicality of the paper work, defines the object, aim, number of tasks and the very structure of the work. First chapter highlights basic theoretical questions - basic developments of testing listening and pros and cons of testing listening. Second chapter contains designed exercises for testing listening comprehension at the intermediate level. Conclusion represents key finding and the main points of testing listening.

Chapter 1. Fundamental considerations in testing listening 1.1. Basic developments of testing listening

Listening serves as an essential part of communicative competence. It is a skill that deserves appropriate treatment with writing, reading etc. With the unrelenting trend toward globalization, which manifests itself in greater international trade, travel, education, Internet use, cheap international telephone calls, and mass entertainment, English has become a world language. The need to be able to understand English is increasing by the day. There have been three historical developments in testing listening. These

developments correspond to the theories of language learning and the different methods used to teach English over the past 60 years. These are most known three approaches like the discrete-point approach, the integrative approach, the communicative approach. The discrete-point approach is derived from structuralism and behaviorism. This type of approach to testing listening is that spoken text is the same as written text and that individual parts of the language can be isolated and tested. With the integrated approach, listeners must process spoken text and demonstrate that they understand the literal meaning of what is said. The main criticism here is that this type of test does not move much above the sentence level. Language is rarely tested in a wider context [7, p.201]. The communicative approach to testing attempts to account for listening and understanding in a wide range of contexts. It takes as its main orientation a demonstration by the listeners that they are able to do something with the information they have comprehended. And small problem appearing here it is an enormous number of communicative events, and it is impossible to test them all. Understanding the approaches used in testing helps to frame our ideas about what and how to test.

Listening tests typically resemble reading comprehension tests except that the student listens to a passage instead of reading it. The student then answers multiple choice questions that address various levels of literal and inferential comprehension. Important elements in all listening tests are the listening stimuli, the questions, the test environment. The listening stimuli should represent typical oral language, and not consist of simply the oral reading of passages designed to be written material. The material should model the language that students might typically be expected to hear in the classroom, in various media, or in conversations. Since listening performance is strongly influenced by motivation and memory, the passages should be interesting and relatively short. To ensure fairness, topics should be grounded in experience common to all students, irrespective of sex and geographic, socioeconomic, or racial/ethnic background. [17, p.16] In regard to questions, multiple-choice items should focus on the most important aspects of the passage (not trivial details) and should measure skills from a particular domain. Answers designated as correct should be derived from the passage, without reliance on the student's prior knowledge or experience. Questions and response choices should meet accepted psychometric standards for multiple-choice questions. An alternative to the multiple-choice test is a performance test that requires students to select a picture or actually perform a task based on oral instruction. For example, students might hear a description of several geometric figures and choose pictures that match the description, or they might be given a map and instructed to trace a route that is described orally. The testing environment for listening assessment should be free of external distractions. If stimuli age presented from a tape, the sound quality should be and

excellent. If stimuli are presented by a test administrator, the material should be presented clearly, with appropriate volume and rate of speaking. As it was mentioned before testing listening contains a number of different types of listening tests with its own advantages and disadvantages. And for convenience, these

different listening tests can be divided into two main approaches. They are the process approach and the product approach. The first of these, the process approach, attempts to identify the various sub-skills or processes used in listening and then tries to assess whether the testee has mastered these or not. The main problem with testing the process of listening comprehension is badly researched. An obvious alternative approach is to test the product of listening. Students are given a passage to listen to and then checked if they understood it. The drawback with this approach is that the product of the listening comprehension process is not easily available for inspection. The task most commonly given to students is answering questions, but it could also be filling in a grid, or marking a place on a map or chart. Picture identification tasks are also sometimes used. Completing the task is dependent on understanding the text. Care should be taken that task completion really does require comprehension of the text. It is surprising how often a good guess can be made at the right answer without even hearing the actual text [16, p.58]

1.2. Pros and cons of testing listening

Given the complexity of the listening process, it is easy to see that many tests which are called tests of listening comprehension are not really testing listening comprehension in the full sense at all. Indeed, Brown and Yule express the problem thus: ... we find existing approaches to the assessment of listening comprehension based on a very insecure theoretical notion of what "comprehension" means. It is by no means clear that a great deal of what is currently tested in listening comprehension tests is necessary, or relevant, to the process of understanding the communicative event which the student has listened to. [5, p.100]

It is well known true that there is, as yet, no such thing as the ideal listening test. There are, a number of different types of listening test, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The type of test preferred will depend largely on how individual test makers evaluate these advantages and disadvantages in the light of their own requirements, which is one reason why test users should try to develop a good theoretical understanding of listening comprehension. The effect of testing on teaching and learning is known as backwash, and can be harmful or benecial. If a test is regarded as important, if the stakes are high, preparation for it can come to dominate all teaching and learning activities. And if the test content and testing techniques are at variance with the objectives of the course, there is likely to be harmful backwash. An instance of this would be where students are following an English course that is meant to train them in the language skills (including writing) necessary for university study in an English-speaking country, but where the language test that they have to take in order to be admitted to a university does not test those skills directly. If the skill of writing, for example, is tested only by multiple choice items, then there is great pressure to practise such items rather than practise the skill of writing itself. This is clearly undesirable. However, backwash can be positively benecial. Davies once wrote that the good test is an obedient servant since it follows and apes the teaching (Davies 1968:5). May be it is difcult to agree, and perhaps today Davies would as well. The proper relationship between teaching and testing is for sure the sort of partnership. It is true that there may be occasions when the teaching programme is potentially good and appropriate but the testing is not; everybody in such condition likely to step into harmful backwash. If testing always had a benecial backwash on teaching, it would have a much better reputation among teachers [ 9, p.2]. What about backwash, it can be viewed as part of something more general the impact of assessment. The term impact, as it is used in educational measurement, is not limited to the effects of assessment on learning and teaching but extends to the way in

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which assessment affects society as a whole, and has been discussed in the context of the ethics of language testing. [10] Very often tests fail to measure accurately whatever it is that they are intended to measure. Teachers actually know this. Students true abilities are not always reected in the test scores that they obtain. To a certain extent this is inevitable. Language abilities are not easy to measure; we cannot expect a level of accuracy comparable to those of measurements in the physical sciences. But we can expect greater accuracy than is frequently achieved. The causes of inaccuracy concern test content and test techniques at first point and lack of reliability when on a reliable test you can be condent that someone will get more or less the same score, whether they happen to take it on one particular day or on the next; Whereas on an unreliable test the score is quite likely to be considerably different, depending on the day on which it is taken. One conclusion drawn from this might be that we would be better even without language tests. If testing comes in conict with telling you the real level of you understanding then it is not so necessary. The logic keeps this way, but in fact how could we step further without it? Sometimes or it would be even better to say always, information about peoples language ability is very useful and necessary. It is difcult to imagine universities accepting students without some knowledge of their prociency in English.

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Chapter 2. Testing listening techniques at the intermediate level 2.1. Multiple-choice items

In most standardized tests, it is normal to use multiple choice questions to test comprehension. It is very convenient to score with modern high-speed marking machines, but making them, however, is not so easy. Written question is provided with the correct answer, where question contains two or three more distractors, or alternative answers which look like attractive possibilities to those who did not understand the text, but which are clearly wrong to those who did.

Test yourself
I ).You will hear Claire describing what happened when she went into hospital for the birth of her second child. Look at the sentences below. As you listen, choose the best alternative: a, b, c or d.

1.When the Nigerian lady learned that she had made a mistake, Claire expected her to be: a unconcerned b upset c amused d embarrassed 2. The lady was: a unconcerned b upset c amused d embarrassed 3. At the time, Claire felt: a unconcerned b upset c amused d embarrassed 4. Now she feels: a unconcerned b upset

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c amused d embarrassed

Type script
You will hear Claire describing what happened when she went into hospital for the birth of her second child. Look at the sentences in Test yourself (pause: fifteen seconds). As you listen, choose the best alternative: a, b, c or d. Play the piece twice (pause: fifteen seconds). The lady who was in the bed diagonally opposite from where I was, who was a Nigerian lady whose command of English wasnt exceptional, said to me, How old is your son? And I said, He is seven. Your other son, she said. I said, Hes seven. No, your other son. Your big son. And it came in a blinding flash. She was talking about Mike. And I said, Thats not my son, thats my husband. And instead of retiring into a corner, licking her wounds, thinking, Oh God, Ive said the most awful thing going, she pursued the subject

by saying, I said to my husband, it was strange, I havent seen a son being so affectionate to his mother as that son is being to her! But shed really just got me and, and, you know, now I can laugh and its a joke and its a nice dinner party story, in a way, but at the time I was absolutely devastated [8]

However, there are a number of disadvantages as well. First, multiple-choice items invite guessing. Secondly, important parts of a passage sometimes cannot be tested simply because three plausible distractors cannot be found. Last, but not least, good multiple-choice questions are extremely difficult to write. Common problems include clues pointing to the right answer, con fusing or implausible distractors, insufficient number of distractors--ideally, there should he one correct answer and three distractors, unclear or lengthy wording, negative wording, and more than one correct option.

2.2. Open-ended questions

The primary use of open-ended questions is to help a subject start talking. They are questions that cannot be answered with a single word such as yes or no. These questions encourages the speaker to say more without actually directing the conversation and to provide more information. The use of open-ended questions encourages the speaker to expand on the subject in a more comprehensive way, lets the speaker know that their ideas matter to you and also relaxes the people around you. Examples of open-ended questions include:

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- What alternatives have you thought about ? - What do you mean by ? - What could some of the consequences be ? - What other possibilities 13ge there ? - What were the considerations that led up to this ? - Why is this element the most important aspect? - Where might this rule not necessarily hold true? - How else could this situation be explained? [19]

Note that why questions are not asked directly. Why questions tend to steer the conversation toward blame and shut down communication. Why questions also tend to pass judgment. They questions give a feeling of interrogation that makes rapport building difficult. They also cause you to work hard at thinking up new questions. [13]

2.3. Paraphrase and Summary

A summary is a brief restatement, in your own words, of the content of a passage. You should focus on the central idea of the passage, and, in a condensed form, relay the passages main points reflecting the order in which they occur. Summarizing in your own words of what you were told demonstrates listening, creates empathy and establishes rapport because it is evident that you have heard and understood. Summarys purpose is to pull together major ideas, facts, and feelings. That is why it should not include minor details, repeated points, or any of your own opinions and conclusion. A summary is very similar to a paraphrase in that you use your own words to communicate to your reader what the original passage has stated; however, an important

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difference between the two is that the paraphrase is approximately the same length as the original rather that one quarter of its length, as a summary is. Usually, paraphrasing begins with the words, Are you telling me or Are you saying Paraphrasing also clarifies content, highlights issues and promotes give and take between you and the subject. It tends to make the subject a better listener. In other words it is restating a message, but usually with fewer words where possible to try and get more to the point.
S: I just dont understand, one minute she tells me to do this, and the next minute to do that. X: She really confuses you. S: I really think he is a very nice guy. Hes so thoughtful, sensitive, and kind. He calls me a lot. Hes fun to go out with. X: You like him very much, then. [1]

The purpose of such test is to check your understanding of what you heard and to communicate that you are trying to understand what is being said. If youre successful, paraphrasing indicates that you are following the speakers verbal explorati ons and that youre beginning to understand the basic message. Marion Geddes highlights the following task for intermediate level learners testing:

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Type script You will hear a British actor, Arthur Mu liard, describing the block of flats, the Peabody Buildings, that he lived in as a child. Read the statements in Test yourself (pause: fifteen seconds). As you listen, mark each statement true or false. Play the interview twice (pause: fifteen seconds).

Libby Punies:

Tell me about the beginnings of it all. You, you were born in, er, those great grim blocks in Islington, werent you, the Peabody Buildings?

Art1tur Mullard: Thats right, yes, yes. Libby Purves: What was it like there then in 1910?

Arthur Mullard: Well, I mean they were, er, they were, er, more like prisons than anything else, I mean, er, I would say very, very similar to prisons. They were built on the same

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style. Very massive, solid places, you know. And, er, there was one, there was one, two and three rooms. And, er, there was only small rooms, like, you see. And er, and er, I had five brothers. My mother and my father slept in one room, and all the boys, it was all boys, we all slept in one, in the other room, and in the middle was, was the kitchen and living room,you know. (Laughs) Libby Purves: I read in your, your autobiography published a few years ago that you actually kept on moving. Er, you moved flats quite often but always inside the Peabody Buildings. Arthur Mullard: Oh yes, my mother used to look out the window, you know, she used to get the wanderlust, she used to say, Oh, I dont know, Im getting fed up with d like a little house in the country, something like that, shed say that, look out the window, she was a dreamer, you know, and, er, I cant stand this place any longer. And then youd come home from school and youd find shed moved. (Laughter) She was. . . she was in D block. Libby Purves: What? She just got, got a transfer? rooms going over there, cant I have them? And hed say, Yes, and there was no problem in moving. Wed have, have a couple of beds and a couple of chairs and that was your hopping pot, you know what I mean? Of course, your old man would come home from work of a night time, he couldnt find us. Libby Punies: You didnt leave a message on the main gate? Arthur Mullard: No, no, hed go and see the porter and find out where we was. [8] Arthur Mullard: Yes, yes, shed gone down to see the porters, Theres a couple, theres a couple of

2.4. Dictation

One test type which is in many ways related to the reduced redundancy tests and which has been very widely used is the dictation. This was criticized by as being little more than a test of spelling, but work in the 1970s has indicated that dictation can be a good measure of general language proficiency [11]. Foreign language users can utilize the redundancy in the language what is a good measure of their language ability. For

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those who do not know the technique, dictation usually involves hearing a passage twice[15]. As an example here is:
Its certainly nice to see lots of presents under the tree on Christmas morning, but it does seem extremely wasteful. Many presents end up being unwanted. Here are some interesting ideas for getting rid of those unwanted gifts: Give one away whenever you need to give a gift to someone, e.g. when the gift doesnt have to be very personal. Remember to make a note stating who gave the item to you in the first place so that you dont make the mistake of giving it back to them. Give unwanted presents to a local charity store, the charity will be happy to have them. Hold a bad gift swap party the week after Christmas with all your friendseach person brings the gift they hated the most and everyone swaps. Visit an old peoples home or childrens home. Bag up the presents and bring a bit of happinesss to someone else. If none of the above suggestions appeal to you why not auction any unwanted items on Ebay! [12]

For the first time the passage is played straight through, and students just listen and try to understand. The second time they hear it, the passage is broken into a number of short sections with a pause between each section:
It's certainly nice // to see lots of presents// under the tree //on Christmas morning,// but //it does seem //extremely wasteful.// Many presents //end up //being unwanted.// Here// are some interesting// ideas //for getting rid of // those unwanted //gifts: // Give one away // whenever //you need //to give a gift // to someone,// e.g. //when the gift //doesn't have //to be very //personal.// Remember //to make a note// stating //who gave the item //to you// in the first place //so that //you don't //make the mistake// of giving //it back to them.// Give unwanted presents// to a local// charity store,// the charity //will be happy //to have them.// Hold //a 'bad gift swap'// party //the week after //Christmas// with all// your friends//...each person// brings the gift// they hated //the most// and everyone swaps.// Visit// an old people's home// or children's home.// Bag up the presents// and bring a bit// of happiness// to someone else.// If none //of the above// suggestions //appeal to you //why not// auction //any unwanted //items// on EBay! // [12]

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During that pause students have to write down what they have just heard. The size of each section of text between pauses can vary, but probably the best way is to make them of differing lengths, varying from about four or five words up to about 12 words or so. The ideal length will depend on the ability of the students and the nature of the text used. There is also a variation on the dictation test which has been used quite extensively in research on second language, acquisition and in testing non-literate second language users. This is what is called a sentence elicitation task. It is basically the same as a dictation, except that students do not write down what they hear, but repeat it into a tape recorder during the pause after each section. According to Gallimore this has shown itself to be a reasonably reliable method of testing general language ability [ 9 ].

2.5. Cloze test

Listening cloze tests, is the test in which the students usually get a written passage from which certain words have been replaced by blanks, as in the standard written cloze test, and then they listen to a recording of the passage and try to fill in the blanks from what they have heard. There are a number of problems with this technique. One is that students can often treat the passage as a normal cloze test, and fill in the blanks even if they did not hear the passage very well, in which case it is no longer a listening test at all.

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The testing procedure is quite simple. Students are given a summary of the passage they are going to hear, in which some of the important content words have been replaced by blanks. Like in the example below:
Addiction May Be In Our Genes Scientists have discovered that addictions may be (1) ____________. A team from Britains University of Cambridge found that (2) ____________ of drug addicts share the same brain abnormalities as their drug-(3) ____________ brothers and sisters. The research team said these abnormal brain structures are linked to (4) ____________ self-control and drug dependence. The researchers suggest that addiction is in some ways a (5) ____________ of the brain. This may provide important new ways into helping people with problems of selfcontrol when it (6) ____________ to addictions. The study sought to find out if drugs changed the (7) ____________ of the brain or whether the brains of drug addicts were wire differently from (8) ____________. Lead researcher Dr Karen Ersche told the BBC: It has (9) ____________ been known that not everyone who (10) ____________ drugs becomes addicted. She continued: It shows that drug addiction is not a (11) ____________ of lifestyle, it is a disorder of the brain and we need to recognise this. These brothers and sisters who don't have addiction problems, what they can tell us is how they (12) ____________ these problems, how they manage selfcontrol in their (13) ____________ life. Dr Ersche and her colleagues studied 50 (14) ____________ of siblings one with a history of drug addiction and one with no (15) ____________ of taking drugs. She compared these with 50 healthy people. She concluded: We need to find out how these non-addicted siblings were able to (16) ____________ using Type script Scientists have discovered that addictions may be hereditary. A team from Britains University of Cambridge found that siblings of drug addicts share the same brain abnormalities as their drug-using brothers and sisters. The research team said these abnormal brain structures are linked to poor selfcontrol and drug dependence. The researchers suggest that addiction is in some ways a disorder of the brain. This may provide important new ways into helping people with problems of self-control when it comes to addictions. The study sought to find out if drugs changed the wiring of the brain or

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whether the brains of drug addicts were wired differently from birth. Lead researcher Dr Karen Ersche told the BBC: It has long been known that not everyone who takes drugs becomes addicted. She continued: It shows that drug addiction is not a choice of lifestyle, it is a disorder of the brain and we need to recognize this. These brothers and sisters who don't have addiction problems, what they can tell us is how they overcome these problems, how they manage self-control in their daily life. Dr Ersche and her colleagues studied 50 pairs of siblings one with a history of drug addiction and one with no experience of taking drugs. She compared these with 50 healthy people. She concluded: We need to find out how these non-addicted siblings were able to resist using drugs. [2]

After looking at the passage for a while, they have some idea what they are listening for, they listen to the passage. They should be discouraged from writing while listening. Their task is to use their understanding of the passage to fill in the blanks. One mark is awarded for each blank completed with an acceptable word. The use of clozed summaries of listening passages as a testing method seems to have much to recommend it. They apparently have a reasonably firm theoretical base, practical trials have produced encouraging results, and they look sufficiently serious and academic for inclusion on college entrance examinations [5, p.29].

2.6. True-false items

True-false items are easier to write than multiple-choice questions, but the students has a fifty-percent chance of being correct by guessing. Because both multiplechoiceand true-false responses encourage guessing, it is common practice for test instructions to state whether or not there is a penalty for guessing, and what that penalty is.

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Answer true or false statement

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Henry is getting ready to go for a run. The weather is nice today. Joy currently follows a very strict running schedule. Joy no longer runs for 45 minutes every day. Joy used to run about five miles a day. Joy usually runs with other people. Joy said her earlier running program was easy to follow because she did it every day. Joy runs three days a week now. Joy doesn't run as often now because she hurt her knee. Henry thinks that running is good for the mind but hard on the body. True True True True True True True True True True False False False False False False False False False False

Type script Henry: Hey Joy, where are you going? Joy: Oh, I'm just getting ready to go for a run. This is the weather that I love to run in. It's beautiful outside today! Henry: Yeah, it is beautiful. Great day to work in the yard, too! I didn't know that you were a runner. Joy: Well, not as much anymore. I used to follow a running program that was pretty strict. I ran every morning for 45 minutes. Henry: Wow! How far did you run? Joy: Well, I ran on a forest trail that was about three miles long, and then I would run for a couple of miles on the streets in our neighborhood, too. I ran with a group that met a couple times a week. Henry: Right. I know there are different running clubs around here that meet on a regular basis. Joy: Yep. It was a routine that was really easy to follow because I did it every day and I ran with other people, but it was a program that just took too much time. Henry: I bet. So do you run very often now? Joy: Well, I try to run three times a week, but it's hard because I have a lot of other responsibilities. I don't know anyone who likes to run with me, either. Henry: Well, three times a week is better than none! It's hard, but running is exercise that is good for your body and your mind. Joy: True. That's why I'm trying to do it even though it's not always easy.

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Henry: Well, good for you! Have a good run! Joy: Thanks. And enjoy working in your yard. It looks great! Henry: Thanks. Bye. [2]

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Conclusion

Listening comprehension has been neglected in research and practice until quite recently. Even now, we cannot say that listening comprehension research abounds in the literature when compared to that of reading comprehension. And true thing is that listening is vital in language learning in that it provides input for the learner. Without understanding the inputs, students cannot learn anything. Scientists follow the language development step by step trying to research it and to find new approaches for its teaching. And the result are three historical developments in testing listening. These developments correspond to the theories of language learning and the different methods used to teach English - discrete-point approach, the integrative approach, the communicative approach. Understanding the approaches used in testing helps to frame our ideas about what and how to test. The conclusion to note is that testing listening comprehension is far more complex and undertaking than it would seem to be at first sight. However, this applies not only to testing listening comprehension, but to testing any aspect of foreign language ability and to remember that our processing space is limited. In practical terms, the choice of test type will depend to some extent on the needs of the situation and the opinions of individual teachers. Of the various test types, cloze passages or summaries of texts seem very suitable for testing and are obviously highly recommended, especially with narrative texts. And what about washback effect it is likely to be more positive than negative. Short-answer questions on realistic public announcements are another obvious choice and should be seriously considered. For expository tests, more complex openended questions or grid-filling activities where suitable can be used. Open ended question are easy to make but usually require a rating scale to mark them. They have quite positive washback effect if are used in realistic text.

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What about dictation, it is a possibility, or rather a temptation, because, although it is obviously a good testing technique, the likely washback effect argues against it. The most important thing to bear in mind when making testing listening comprehension is the washback effect on the classroom. If test makers continually ask themselves what sort of washback their test will lead to, there is every possibility of improving English language education.

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References

1. Active Listening Skills. Retrieved from: http://www.taft.cc.ca.us/lrc/class/assignments/actlisten.html 2. Breaking News English/ Breaking News English/ Addiction May Be In Our Genes. Retrieved from: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1202/120204addiction.html 3. Broukal, Milada. Grammar Form and Functions. Student book two. Glendale Community College. Retrieved from: http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0070082278/student_view0/unit13/activity_ 2__listening_exercise.html 4. Brown, G., & Yule, G. Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. 5. Buck, G. The Testing of Listening Comprehension: An introspective study. Language Testing, 1991. 6. Davies, A. Language Testing Symposium: A Psycholinguistic Approach. London: Oxford University Press, 1968. 7. Flowerdew, John. Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice / John Flowerdew, Lindsay Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge language education, 1951. 8. Geddes, Marion. How To Listen? Making Intelligent Guess, 1988. 9. Gallimore, R., & Tharp, R. G. The Interpretation of Elicited Sentence Iimitation In a Standardized Context. Language Learning , 1981. 10. Hughes, Arthur. Testing for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2002. 11. Lado, R. Language testing. London: Longman, 1961. 12. Learn English Dictation. Retrieved from: http://www.learnenglish.de/Dictation/DictationXmasI.htm

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13. Lepinski, Cokie. Seven Active Listening Techniques Used by Hostage Negotiators. Retrieved from: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:RsTjEwAYk7oJ:www.scr911.org/ training/downloads/Scenarios/Active%2520Listening.doc+&hl=en&pid=bl&srci d=ADGEEShhKs_GLKO0DhsUc65af8k0dABbUZG4dySb0UlYadJGwhDgOzPr _2zjrZOIwyLLKaVxYEqUs4w17QtlXFWrBrhPN0mgDev_Zw7ssH1ShG06JRaj385fPDhIvZnTKGGDQhQKbsz&sig=AHIEtbRQjvr0Yx1e0OEe M3satcZBgcCnsw 14. Nunan, D. Listening in Language Learning. The Language Teacher. 15. Oller, W. J. Language Tests at School. London: Longman, 1979. 16. Preston, R. C. Ability of Students to Identify Correct Responses Before Reading. The Journal of Educational Research, 1964. 17. Rubin, Donald L. Assessing Listening and Speaking Skills. Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-923/speaking.htm 18. Thompson, Irene. Testing Listening Comprehension. Retrieved from http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/155695921?versionId=169724583 19. Writing Center Learning Guide. Active Listening. Retrieved from: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/learning_guides/learningGuide_active Listening.pdf