Build Bright University

Language Testing and Assessment

Chapter-6
Assessing Listening
Prepared by Kheang Sokheng,
Ph.D Candidate and MEd in TESOL
 Basic Types of Listening
• 1. Intensive. Listening for perception of
components (phonemes, words, intonation) 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 a
short response.
 Basic Types of Listening
3. Selective. Assessment tasks could ask to listen for

names, numbers, directions, or certain facts and

events.
4. Extensive. Listening to develop a top- down, global

understanding of spoken language. Performance

ranges from lengthy lectures, a conversation, to a
comprehensive message. Listening for
 Basic Types of Listening
the main idea, and for making inferences.
•Micro-skills of listening: attending to the
smaller bits and chunks of language, in more of
a bottom-up process.
•Macro-skills of listening: focusing on the larger
elements involved in a top-down approach to a
listening task. (p. 121)
 Designing: Intensive Listening
• Phonemic pair, consonants

Hear: He’s from California.

Read: (a). He’s from California.

(b). She’s from California.

 Intensive Listening
• Phonemic pair, vowels

Hear: Is he living?

Read: (a). Is he leaving?

(b). Is he living?
 Sentence Paraphrase
• Hear: Hello, my name is Ken. I come from
Japan.
• Read: (a). Ken is comfortable in Japan.
(b). Ken wants to come to Japan.
(c). Ken is Japanese.
(d). Ken likes Japan.
 Dialogue Paraphrase
• Hear: Man: Hi, Maria, my name’s George.
Woman: Nice to meet you, George. Are
you American?
Man: No, I’m Canadian.
• Read: (a). George lives in the U. S.
(b). George is American.
(c). George comes from Canada.
 Responsive Listening
• Response to a question
• Hear: How much time did you take to do your

homework?
• Read: (a). In about an hour.
(b). About an hour.
(c). About $10.
(d). Yes, I did.
 Responsive Listening
• Open-ended response to a question
• Hear: How much time did you take to do your

homework?
• Write/Speak: ______________________
• (Good: authenticity & creativity
• Bad: practicality)
 Selective Listening
– Listening Cloze (p. 126)
– 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.
 Information Transfer
• 1. Multiple-picture-cued selection (p. 127)
• 2. A number of people and/or actions are presented
in one picture, such as a group of people at a
party.
• Q: Is the tall man near the door talking to a short
woman?
• T/F: The woman wearing a red skirt is watching TV.
Identification: Point to the person who is standing

behind the lamp.

 Single-picture-cued verbal multiple-
choice
• One single photo is presented to the test-
taker, who then hears four different
statements
and must choose one of the four to describe
the photo. (p. 128)
• Information transfer: chart-filling (p. 129)
• Sentence repetition: the task of repeating a
sentence/a partial sentence
 Extensive Listening
• Dictation: 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/natural word
groups, and finally, at normal speed once
more, during which test-takers write down
what they have heard. (p. 131)
 Communicative S-R Tasks
• The test-taker is presented with a stimulus
monologue/conversation and then is asked to
respond to a set of comprehension questions.
(p. 133)
1. Dialogue and multiple-choice comprehension

items
2. Dialogue and authentic questions on details
 Authentic Listening Tasks
• A framework of alternatives
1. Note-taking: The gain of note-taking is in offering

students an authentic task that mirrors what

they
have been focusing on in the classroom.
2. Editing: It provides both a written and a spoken
stimulus, and requires the test-taker to listen for

discrepancies.
 Authentic Listening Tasks
3. Interpretive tasks: An interpretive task
extends the stimulus material to a longer
stretch of discourse and forces the test-
taker to infer a response.
4. Retelling: In a related task, test-takers
listen
to a story or news event and retell it /
summarize it, either orally or in writing.
 Authentic Listening Tasks
5. Interactive listening: It is a two-way
process
of speaking and listening in face-to-face
conversations.