Listening and Reading

Table of Contents
Listening......................................................................................................................................................1
Listening Processing....................................................................................................................................1
Bottom-up/Intensive listening (Language focused).................................................................................1
Top-down/Extensive listening (Meaning focused)..................................................................................1
Types of Listening Activities.........................................................................................................................2
Authentic and Realistic Listening Materials.................................................................................................2
Choosing Format.........................................................................................................................................3
Listening at Different Levels........................................................................................................................3
Setting up a Listening...................................................................................................................................5
Listening Sequence......................................................................................................................................5
Pre-listening............................................................................................................................................5
During-listening.......................................................................................................................................5
Post-listening...........................................................................................................................................6
Final thoughts..............................................................................................................................................6
Reading........................................................................................................................................................6
Reading Processing......................................................................................................................................7
Bottom-up/Data-driven...........................................................................................................................7
Top-down/Content-driven.......................................................................................................................7
Common Student Difficulties.......................................................................................................................7
Lack of background knowledge...............................................................................................................7
Slow decoding.........................................................................................................................................7
Complex grammar structure....................................................................................................................8
Different text structure............................................................................................................................8
Lack of interest........................................................................................................................................8
Types of Reading.........................................................................................................................................8
Intensive/Detail-oriented/Inside-classroom............................................................................................8
Extensive/Pleasure-oriented/Outside-classroom....................................................................................9
Authentic and Realistic Reading Materials..................................................................................................9
Choosing Material and Format....................................................................................................................9
Reading at Different Levels........................................................................................................................10
Setting up an Intensive Reading................................................................................................................10
Reading Sequence.....................................................................................................................................11
Pre-reading............................................................................................................................................11
During-reading.......................................................................................................................................11
Post-reading..........................................................................................................................................11
In-Class Reading Activities.........................................................................................................................12
Receptive Skills in PPP...............................................................................................................................12
Assessing Receptive Skills..........................................................................................................................13
Sample Listening Sub-Skills Commonly Assessed..................................................................................13
Sample Reading Sub-Skills Commonly Assessed....................................................................................14

Listening
It is used more than the other three skills, serves as the basis for the development of oral language, and
is the primary channel for the input of new information.

It is also an important skill in young-learner classrooms, where students may not yet be able to read in
their native language.

Listening allows language to be picked up at a subconscious level, so exposure alone can be considered a
form of skill practice. However, exposure to English without strategic practice is not enough for your
students to truly learn the language.

Teacher should plan and organize aural input, provide meaningful and comprehensible input, and create
opportunities to use that input as a basis for production.

Listening Processing
Bottom-up/Intensive listening (Language focused)
Definition- In this process, students focus on specific parts of the language they hear.

What students do? - They may focus on things such as keywords, structures, or specific sound features.

Classroom Implication- Students listen for specific “details” of what they will hear, such as grammar,
vocabulary, or pronunciation features. It is also beneficial for beginning-level students because of its
focus on listening at the word and sentence level.
Top-down/Extensive listening (Meaning focused)
Definition- Students focus on the holistic meaning of the language they hear. 

What students do? - They tap into what they already know about the topic or situation to aid in
understanding the overall meaning of the language they hear.

Classroom Implication- This process is often practiced through pre-listening tasks that trigger students’
background knowledge. It can also be practiced through prediction and guessing tasks as well as asking
students to listen for the gist, main ideas, or setting.

Students must be given activities that address both of these ways of processing aural information.
When both processes take place together, it is called interactive processing. Interactive processing is
something that you do naturally in your first language.

Common Students Difficulties

Working at word level
Some students try to mentally translate every word into their first language. This is problematic because
they may “stop” listening when they encounter an unknown word and potentially lose the thread of
what was being said. To overcome this, incorporate top-down listening practices that teach students to
become comfortable with ambiguity and listen for the overall meaning.

Recognizing sounds
Distinguishing particular sounds is a potential listening problem, particularly for beginner-level students.
One listening activity to practice sound distinction is working on minimal pairs.

Recognizing reduced forms

Reduced forms include contractions, elision (natural omission of sounds in fluent spoken
language), assimilation, and reduction.  (1) “I’ve always loved him” and (2) “I am going to call.” In this
first sentence, your students may hear “I always loved him” and fail to hear the soft and quick “-ve”
sound that makes a contraction. In the second sentence, students may struggle to understand “going to”
as you are likely to say “gonna.” Proper bottom-up listening practices on these pronunciation features
can increase students’ ability to understand authentic speech.

Understanding varieties of English

It is important to use different English varieties in your listening activities. Likewise, you should consider
varying the gender and age of speakers. 

Struggling with Suprasegmentals

Unfamiliar stress patterns may interfere with recognizing known words. Students may also not recognize
how stress affects pronunciation or changes meaning at the word and sentence level. Students may
have problems distinguishing between the following sentences:
That’ll be thirteen dollars. vs. That’ll be thirty dollars.

That’s elementary. vs. That’s a lemon tree.

The combination of stressed and unstressed parts of a sentence is called rhythm. You can think of
rhythm as the soft and quick vs. the hard and long beats that create the music of English. English is a
stressed-time language. This means that the amount of time it takes to say a sentence will depend on
the number of stressed syllables in the sentence. For some students, listening practice with stress at the
sentence level may be beneficial. https://youtu.be/FtTLEAA0Sbc

And finally, depending on your students’ first language(s), they may struggle to understand the
way intonation affects meaning in English. For example, some students may not be able to distinguish
the semantic difference between these two sentences: (1) “What’s his name?” (falling intonation) and
(2) “What’s his name?” (Rising intonation). Some learners could benefit from intonation listening
practices.  

Types of Listening Activities

INTENSIVE LISTENING
Prediction questions to focus attention on specific
information
True/false and yes/no questions for specific
details  questions)
Wh-questions for specific information (open-
ended or multiple choice)
Cloze and fill-in-the-blank exercises
Sentence completion
Error correction
Listening for sound and pronunciation features
Ticking, numbering, or reordering pictures  
Filling out graphic organizers, forms, charts, and
tables
EXTENSIVE LEARNING
Prediction questions to focus attention on
concepts such as main idea or setting
Main idea questions (e.g., true/false, yes/no, wh-
Inferential questions (e.g., true/false, yes/no, wh-
questions)
Critical responses that ask learners to make a
connection between their background knowledge
and the listening
Critical responses that ask learners to give an
opinion or extrapolate information from the
listening into a new context
Summary or paraphrase that requires information
from the listening 
Synthesis of multiple listenings

Authentic and Realistic Listening Materials

Realistic materials are those that have been developed with the second language learner specifically in
mind. Authentic materials are real-world selections produced for a native English-speaking audience,
without consideration for second language learners.

It is preferable to use authentic listening selections in class for the following reasons: 
 1. Authentic materials reflect what learners are likely to encounter in real life, providing them with
and preparing them for real-world experiences.
2. They expose the listener to natural speech and varieties of English accents, vocabulary, and
pronunciation features, and illustrate the contrast between the written and spoken word.
3. They provide familiarity with common features of discourse, such as filler and hesitation
sounds, conversation overlaps, false starts, incomplete utterances, etc., which helps build a
tolerance for ambiguity in the second language learner.
4. The listener can become more aware of the role of stress, rhythm, and intonation in conveying
meaning.

Of course, much of what you choose will depend on your school’s teaching environment, course
requirements, and the resources available to you. Regardless, strive to use authentic listening materials
when and where possible – using them in support of any assigned realistic materials is also an
effective teaching strategy. 

Consider your students’ individual wants and needs when selecting topics. For instance, adult students
may have a need or want for specific listening tasks related to business or academic English. Students
wanting to get admission into a university may need to listen to a recorded lecture or a documentary.

For in-class practices, listenings range in length from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the
listening focus. Rarely do authentic in-class listening tasks extend past four minutes. If the materials
you want to use extend past this suggested time, consider breaking up the content and using a shorter
segment in class. 

Choosing Format
Audio only: Listening of this type is excellent practice, as the listener is forced to rely solely on aural
input for comprehension.

Audio-Video: Allows the listener to gauge the speaker’s intent through body language, facial
expressions, and eye contact, matching those features to spoken language.

If subtitles are available, the listener can also compare the spoken vs. written forms of the language.

Aside from normal viewing, the teacher can adapt video input in the following ways to foster prediction
and expectation skills:

 Listening without watching

 Silent viewing
 Partial viewing

Live listening: Accomplished by students listening to the teacher, or perhaps by having a guest speaker,
and can take the form of reading aloud, storytelling, interview, role play, or lecture. This type of
interaction is very good for allowing students to practice interruption techniques,
questioning/clarification strategies and language, and correlating body language to speaker intent and
effectiveness.

Live listening selections that involve gestures and visuals are often used with young learners. TPRS is an
example of that type of listening activity.

Listening at Different Levels

Level Listening Needs Profile
 Recognizing the alphabet and numbers
 Recognizing phonemes
Beginner  Phrases for personal info and everyday life
 Sight words
 Classroom management language and following directions
 High-frequency words: colors, time and date, food, everyday objects,
etc.
 Answering simple questions
 Decoding of language

 Knowledge of phonological rules

 Recognizing meaning difference in word form, order, and grammar
Intermediate  Dealing with reductions and fast speech
 Recognizing emotional tone and register

 Listening for content vs. language (e.g., ESP/EAP)

 Sorting and interpreting relevant information
 Dealing with fast speech
 Bridging comprehension gaps from jokes, slang, and cultural
Advanced references (i.e., learners still tend to interpret language literally)
 Note-taking strategies

Class Activities by Student Level and Listening Type

Type of
Beginning Intermediate Advanced
Processing
Bottom-up Listen for Listen for content vs. Use stress to identify keywords
rising/falling intonation function stress and phrases for note taking

Minimal pair activities Count syllables in longer Recognize spoken vs. written
words contrasts
Count syllables
Listen for reduced syllables, Awareness of discourse markers
Listen for word endings vowels and linked sounds
Listen
Listen for stressed Listen for details for presentation organizational
syllables
 Listen for basic details cues
(numbers, time, etc.)
Identify suprasegmentals

Identify key lecture points to fill

in skeleton outlines

Top-down Listen for feeling Identify register and tone Use background knowledge to
predict content
Listen for gist Recognize speaker’s topic
Use lecture introductions to
Match words and Listen for main idea and predict organization and
sounds to pictures supporting details speaker’s purpose
Recognize topic Identify key ideas

Recognize point-of-view

Interactive Recognize formal vs. Gauge speaker’s intent Predict content from phrase and
informal language from word and phrase discourse markers
stress
Categorize simple Make inferences
information Reconstruct colloquial
(charts/tables) speech into formal

Compare aural input to a Listen to confirm

text and/or own expectations
experience

Setting up a Listening
 Make sure the technology works! There is always the potential for unexpected problems –
DVDs get scratched and skip or won’t play, web-links expire, volume/clarity is poor, etc. Test the
playback equipment and media to confirm that everything is functioning properly and that
sound/video quality is acceptable.
 Prepare supplementary materials in case of unexpected tech problems. For instance, you can
read the dialogue if the audio will not play. 
 Prepare a pre-listening activity to activate your students’ schema and background knowledge.
This will prepare them mentally to accept new language. 
 Prepare both extensive and intensive tasks
 Ensure that your listening task aligns with your lesson goals.
 Use the listening lesson as the foundation for a production activity
Listening Sequence
Pre-listening
 Having paired discussion questions related to the topic
 Pre-teaching needed vocabulary
 Pre-teaching needed background information
 Using stimulating pictures or realia related to the topic 
 Playing part of the video or audio and asking prediction or setting questions
 Playing video on silent or freeze-framing a scene and asking prediction questions

During-listening
The purpose of the during-listening phase is to gain practice in building intensive and/or extensive
listening skills.

1. Play the audio to attune learners to the recording and gain practice in extensive listening skills.
2. Individually provide each student with tasks or questions to check comprehension.
3. Listen a second time to allow students to individually confirm answers. Allow students to then
select whether the listening needs further repetition. 
4. Discuss answers in pairs and then review as a class. 

A common complement to this four-step sequence would be a review of sound features and/or new
language items, as well as a potential final listening with students following and/or marking the
transcript.

Post-listening
The purpose of the post-listening phase is to gain greater exposure and practice with the target
language by building from the listening into a related production task or tasks (speaking or writing).

 Relating listening to your students’ lives in a speaking or writing task

 Role playing conversations connected to the listening topic
 Writing and/or saying what happened before/will happen next
 Giving advice to speakers
 Drawing scenes from the listening and presenting them 

Final thoughts
 Formulate a total listening approach – strategies, techniques, and activities – at the onset of
any course and in all your lessons.
 Take advantage of and build upon the learners’ existing knowledge and mental processing
capabilities; pre-teaching works very well in this regard.
 Use a combination of top-down, bottom-up, and interactive activities.
 Incorporate a wide variety of meaningful, comprehensible, and authentic materials that have
been adapted to the age, level and goals.
  Follow listening activities with a production activity based on what students heard.

Reading
Reading, along with listening, is a receptive language skill, but that does not mean it is a passive skill.
While students do not produce language like they do when speaking or writing, their brains are actively
working while listening or reading to comprehend the given language input.

Reading Processing
Bottom-up/Data-driven
Definition: Bottom-up processing occurs when the reader “decodes” the word and sentence structure
line by line. Here, the reader first deciphers the parts to understand the text as a whole. We might also
guess the meaning of a word by its part of speech or surrounding context.

Classroom implication: Having students read for specific “details” of the text, such as grammar,
vocabulary, or certain content. Other sample activities include identifying affixes or reading out loud in
pairs.

Top-down/Content-driven
Definition: Reader proceeds from a general idea of meaning to a more specific one. The reader reads a
section, makes an internal hypothesis on the meaning of the text, and then reads more in order to either
accept or reject previous hypotheses. 

Classroom implication: Students predict what a text will be about based on titles, subtitles, pictures, etc.
Students annotate the text with comments (e.g., answering a question, writing a question, giving
opinions). Students read to identify main ideas in the text.

A proficient reader likely performs a combination of all techniques when reading: bottom-up, top-down,
as well as something called metacognition. The metacognitive view of reading describes a reader who
thinks consciously about his or her reading strategies. A proficient reader will choose to scan, skim, use
vocabulary clarification strategies, or read for detail as dictated by the purpose of the assignment.

Common Student Difficulties

Lack of background knowledge
The Schema theory states that a reader brings in his or her own knowledge and experiences when trying
to read a text. Therefore, a gap in “schema” may lower comprehension. This gap goes beyond one’s
breadth of vocabulary to incorporate both social and cultural experiences. For example, ESL/EFL readers
are more likely to have trouble understanding text that has cultural-specific humor, terms, or
expressions and idioms.
 Incorporate proper pre-reading tasks.

Slow decoding
Students read much slower in their second language. They labor over each word, tracking each word
with a finger/pencil or stop reading to look up unknown words in a dictionary (which should be
discouraged). If students are unable to decode the words at a fast enough rate, they will likely have to
reread the text multiple times in order to comprehend what they are reading.

Beginning-level students might work on phonics for the alphabet or do activities with sight words (i.e.,
words that are learned by sight rather than by sounding out) to assist in reading faster at the word level.
For higher-level students, you might incorporate speed reading or skimming practices that encourage
students to read at a quicker pace. Also, encouraging students to guess meaning through context
(inferencing) is an effective reading strategy.

Complex grammar structure

 Longer sentences can mean that more clauses and phrasal embedding can occur, adding a greater
burden on the reader. It also affects readers’ interest and responses to a text. Therefore, it is important
to select texts that are grammatically and structurally level appropriate. 

Different text structure

In English essay writing we often follow an introduction, body, and conclusion structure. In some other
languages, however, this type of structure does not exist and may be completely foreign to the
students. 

You can introduce outlines to your students to show the location of content in the reading. You might
also use a graphic organizer to show sequence and/or what language is used to connect different pieces
of information.

Lack of interest
Topic selection is a key factor and should not be overlooked. If suitable to the educational setting, you
could conduct a needs analysis or administer a survey to learn about your students’ interests prior to
topic selection. 

Types of Reading
Intensive/Detail-oriented/Inside-classroom
It involves not only understanding vocabulary and the main idea of a passage but other skills as well,
such as identifying inferences and understanding the author’s tone (humor, sarcasm, hyperbole, etc.)
and purpose (to inform, to entertain, to persuade, etc.).

 True/false and yes/no questions for specific details 

 Wh- questions for specific details (open-ended or multiple choice)
 Error correction
  Ticking, numbering, or reordering sentences 
 Filling out graphic organizers, forms, charts, and tables
 Skimming and scanning (addressed later in this chapter)
 Cloze (fill-in-the-blank) exercises

Extensive/Pleasure-oriented/Outside-classroom
It differs from the context of listening, where it means to listen for the general idea. Furthermore, unlike
with listening, the practice of extensive and intensive reading skills requires different reading materials.

Extensive reading refers to texts that are below level and based on student interest. Intensive reading
texts are above the student’s current level and are being read for purposes other than (but possibly in
addition to) pleasure reading.

 Providing level-appropriate book options for reading outside of class (teacher- or student-
selected) 
 Providing reading packets that include level-appropriate newspaper articles and/or short stories
based on students’ interests 
 Having students select articles or stories of their choice every week 

Authentic and Realistic Reading Materials

Authentic texts are preferable to those “realistic” texts made just for ESL/EFL learners.

 Literary (essays, short stories, novels, poems, etc.)

 Academic (journal articles, textbooks, etc.)
 Special genres (technical reports, comic books, industry analyses)
 Correspondence (letters, postcards, emails, memos, etc.)
 Informational or reference (maps, signs, catalogs, timetables, food labels, bus schedules,
dictionaries, TV listings, thesauri)
 Miscellaneous realia (restaurant menus, magazine advertisements, tickets, etc.)
 Mainstream media (newspapers, internet news, weather reports)

Choosing Material and Format

 Will this text interest my students?
 Is there a meaningful purpose for reading this text?
 Do my students have (or can I provide them with) the appropriate background knowledge to
understanding the content?
 Is the level of abstractness appropriate?
 Is the passage complete in itself or has the author assumed other information or required
inferencing skills?
 What kind of extra-textual support is available?
 Is the text clearly organized with a beginning or introduction and clear sequence signals?
  Is there sufficient redundancy of ideas?
 Will the number of difficult vocabulary items interfere with the assigned task?
 Does the author use a lot of structures that are vague or difficult to process for students at this
level?
 Are syntactic relationships within sentences and between sentences clear?
 Have I set an appropriate task for the type of text, the level of difficulty, and the needs of my
students? Have I taught them the necessary skills to cope with the task?

Reading at Different Levels

ESL/EFL Reading: Skills by Level
Level Materials/Reading Topics
   Concrete and familiar topics
(e.g., family, food, and
Beginner to school, with straightforward
Intermediate facts and figures; concrete
verbs and descriptions)
 Simpler syntax and
vocabulary
 Highly contextualized with
visuals and repetition of key
points
 Functional readings
appropriate for scanning,
such as a local bus schedule,
a travel brochure, a grocery
store price list, class
timetable, or current movie
listings
Sample Skills to Practice
 Understanding main idea
 Scanning for specific
information
 Guessing words from context
 Identifying discourse
markers (which show
cause/effect, sequence,
contrast, etc.)
 Effective use of monolingual
learners’ dictionaries
 Paraphrasing

Intermediate to  More abstract topics

Advanced (figurative language more
accessible to higher-level
students; topics not
necessarily obviously linked
to students’ everyday lives)
 Gradual increase in syntax
complexity and a wider
vocabulary range
 Variety of sources
acceptable if they meet
these criteria
 Analyzing writer’s point of view
 Identifying author’s tone and
choice of rhetorical features
 Identifying purpose (to inform,
to persuade, to entertain, etc.)
 Writing summaries of main
points
 Making inferences
Setting up an Intensive Reading
 Preface the reading with pre-reading tasks that trigger background knowledge and assist with
new language features.
 Prepare tasks that address both bottom-up and top-down reading skills.
 Prepare a few inference questions. Inference questions should not be explicitly stated in the
reading and should be derived.
 Number the paragraphs or add word count numbers to the text so that students can more easily
reference the text.
 Use the reading as a foundation for a production task.
 Prepare supplementary/extension tasks.

Reading Sequence
Pre-reading
Engage student interest and activate schemata. Linguistically prepare students for the reading by pre-
teaching concepts such as, text structure, and key vocabulary or grammar. 

 Use brainstorming strategies to ask students what they already know about the topic.
 Ask students what they know about the text structure. If students are asked to read an email,
for example, you might ask them about the sequence and possible content.
 Skim the reading for main ideas and/or read only the headings, subheadings, and conspicuous
details such as names and dates. Have students then predict what the reading will be about.
 Pre-teach key vocabulary (use fewer than 10 words).

During-reading
 Ask main idea, detail, and inference questions to check for comprehension throughout and/or
after the reading is complete.
 Ask students to guess the meaning of words or phrases from context. This could be conducted in
small groups or as a class.
 Conduct a “think aloud” in groups to generate predictions and interpretations while reading.
Place student ideas on the board and go over as a class. 
 Have groups generate comprehension questions for another group or the class.
 Have students annotate text with personal responses, questions or paraphrases/summaries.
 Use or create your own graphic organizers to accompany the text. 

Post-reading
 If reading a story, have the students write a letter in the voice of one of the characters,
explaining his or her actions in the story to another character.
 If reading job ads, ask students to pick an ad and write an application to the employer.
 If reading an opinion piece from a newspaper, have the students write a paragraph explaining
whether they agree or disagree with the author, and why.
  If appropriate for the level, ask students to summarize a reading passage in a restricted amount
of time.
 If working with advanced students, you might have them paraphrase specific parts of an article
to reinforce understanding (Poole, 2011).
 Pair students together and provide follow-up questions related to the reading. For example, you
might ask them to decide which character they would like to spend a day with and why.

In-Class Reading Activities

Skimming: Set a time limit on reading a text and provide follow-up questions about the main idea(s).
Teach students to start by reading titles, headings, and topic sentences, and to skip over unimportant
words.

Scanning: Teach them to skip over large text areas without trying to read or understand them. If
possible, tell learners to keep the image of the target information (which is often a date, name, or single
word) in their mind as they “scan” through the text.

Speed reading: Monitor reading by giving students a brief passage and having them write down the time
it took to finish it, or you can take the reading away after a set amount of time and give them simple
questions to assess understanding.

If they read quickly but cannot accurately answer the questions, they are not reading effectively. If they
are taking a long time to read but answer the questions correctly, they will need strategies to read
faster.

In either case, the teacher might go through the reading and point out the phrases they should skim
over, or other strategies, such as marking the text, that can improve reading speed without
compromising comprehension.

Running dictation: Used primarily with younger learners at the beginner or low-intermediate levels. 

 Place a short reading on the back wall or on the outside of the classroom door.
 Have students get into pairs and decide who will be Student A and Student B.
 Student A begins by running to the passage, reading the text, and returning to dictate what they
can remember to Student B. 
 Student B writes the information on a piece of paper while Student A assists with correctness.  
 The roles of A and B are switched and they continue to run and dictate until the entire passage
has been transcribed correctly.

Graphic organizers: For example, if your students are reading about the similarities and differences
between mammals and amphibians, you might have them fill out a Venn diagram in order to
demonstrate their comprehension of the text.
Reading jigsaw: students must become “experts” on a section of a reading in order to teach others the
content from that section. After reading individually, students are placed into groups where they must
speak, listen, and write in order to complete a given task.

Receptive Skills in PPP

The presentation stage is where learners are exposed to new language, and it is common to
use listening or reading activities as initial language input in that stage. When this is the case and you
plan to explicitly practice reading and/or listening skills in the presentation stage, the pre-reading
phase will generally happen in the warm-up and/or introduction stages of the plan, preparing learners
for the presentation input via background building. Then, the majority (or all) of the during-reading
work will occur within the presentation stage itself, and the during-steps listed above are usually
complemented or followed by an explicit focus on examples of some specific language features
within the input. This usually consists of noticing and reviewing the particular language features
and/or new lexical or grammatical items that we are targeting as learning aims.

Listening and reading can also serve as further skill and language work after the presentation
stage, within the practice stage of a PPP lesson. For example, if a reading has been used to introduce
some new lexis and/or grammar in the presentation stage, a short listening that includes further
contextualized examples of that same language could be used in the middle of the plan. If this is the
case, the pre/during/post sequence can still be followed, just on a slightly smaller scale.

In either case, the production stage of the lesson can serve as the ultimate post-reading phase, one in
which the topic and language aims can actively be used by the learner to create new language  via
speaking or writing activities. It should be noted that because the production stage is one in which we
want to push our learners to produce language, the receptive skills of listening and reading are
generally not an explicit part of the production stage of PPP (this is excepting, of course, when the
students are required to listen to or read the language production of their fellow students as part of
the larger production activity).

Assessing Receptive Skills

Sample Listening Sub-Skills Commonly Assessed
Interpreting Intonation Patterns – Recognizing surprise, shock, disbelief, or sarcasm on the part of a
native speaker.

Interpreting Spoken Structures – For example, identifying tag, yes/no, or information questions from
speaker intonation.

Interpreting Discourse Signals – Following the presentation and progression of ideas by listening for

transition words and phrases, thought groups, speech pauses, stress, and intonation.
Note-Taking Skills – Listening for keywords and phrases and organizing spoken ideas/information. This is
especially useful for students whose primary language goal involves academic performance in the
second language.

Identifying Pronunciation Features – For example, listening for particular phonemes, or listening
for reductions, (e.g., “going to” pronounced as “gonna”).

Dictation – Interpreting speech to text; generally done with lower levels.

Sample Reading Sub-Skills Commonly Assessed

Main Ideas – Students are asked about comprehension, or the gist, of the entire text or specific
paragraphs. Appropriate question types are multiple choice and open-ended/short answer.

Details – Students are asked to find specific facts within the text. Question types include True/False/NI
(no information/not given), multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, or chart/table completion.

Text Organization – Students are tested on comprehension of cohesion and coherence within the text.
A common technique is to provide the student with an original sentence not found in the text but that is
related to it, and then ask them where this would fit within a certain paragraph or passage from the
text. This type of question can be found on the TOEFL test, so it is helpful for those planning on taking it.

Vocabulary in Context – Students are asked what a particular lexical item means in the context of the
given text. Focus on choosing vocabulary from the text that has multiple meanings in English and be
sure to include a distractor. Multiple choice and matching exercises are good question types for this
purpose.

Inference and Author’s Purpose – Students must draw conclusions from the text and provide an answer
based on the information given. Accept multiple answers as correct since they are merely logical
guesses. Multiple choice and short answer lend themselves to these types of questions.

Pronoun Reference – Students are tested on their knowledge of what noun a particular pronoun
references. Multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank can be used here.

Graph/Chart Interpretation – Many types of questions can be used for this type of assessment activity.

Critical Response – Students must interpret, process, and synthesize information from the text using
their own opinions and background knowledge. This is generally done through open-ended, free-
response questions, where the answer is usually a few sentences to a paragraph in length.