ASSESSMENT OF LISTENING Helen Huntley Senior English Language Fellow MOET, Hanoi, Vietnam The Reading/Listening Connection • How is the assessment of listening different from the assessment of reading?? • How is it similar?? Micro-skills for Listening • discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English • retain chunks of language in short-term memory • recognize English stress patterns, rhythm, intonation • recognize reduced forms of words • distinguish word boundaries • interpret word order patterns • process speech at different rates of delivery • process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections • recognize grammatical word forms, patterns, rules • recognize cohesive devices • recognize meaning expressed through different grammatical patterns Macro-skills for Listening • recognize the communicative function of utterances • identify main ideas from supporting details • make inferences using real-world knowledge • predict outcomes and infer connections • distinguish between literal and implied meanings • use non-verbal clues to assist comprehension • use listening strategies (guessing vocabulary, signaling comprehension etc.) Listening Assessment Tips • Make sure students have enough contextualization to understand the listening text • Provide a communicative purpose for the listening • Focus on assessing the listening skills, not spelling, grammar etc. • Include both detail questions and meaning questions • Don’t expect full comprehension • Consider integrating skills in the types of questions: discrimination of phonemes, paraphrase recognition, short answers, cloze, dictation, information transfer tasks, note-taking Test Content Test specifications for Listening might include the following: • Text types (narrative, descriptive etc.) • Speech types (dialogues, monologues) • Mode of listening: audio, video, reader • Varieties of English • Scripted or unscripted • Length of listening, number of exchanges in dialogues Paraphrase Recognition Steven nailed his presentation this morning. a. Steven used nails at work today. b. Steven’s presentation was very successful. c. Steven injured himself after his presentation today. Objective Format #1 The newly-weds took a much-needed break at a resort last weekend. True/False The couple got married last weekend. Objective Format #2 What would you like to do next weekend? A. Yes, I would. B. B. Just relax. C. About two days. D. In five minutes. Short-Answer Questions Two years ago I spent a week hiking in Colorado. It was one of the most energetic vacations I’ve ever had. Every day, we walked for five hours, then we set up camp. At the campsite, we read for a few hours, then made dinner over a campfire. How many hours a day did he walk? _________ What did he do before dinner? _____________ [...]... 11:30 a.m 9:40 a.m 4:40 pm Listening Tasks for Testing Understanding Read through the different types of activities for Listening assessment in your handout Discuss with a partner Which activities have you used in your classes or for tests? Which activities do you want to try out? ASSESS THE LISTENING TEST Assess the Listening test in your handout • What are the strengths of this test? • What are the.. .Listening Cloze Two years ago I _ a week hiking in Colorado It was _ of the most energetic _ I’ve ever had Every day, we walked for _ hours, then we set _ camp At the campsite, we read for a _ hours, then _ dinner over a campfire Dictation First reading: natural speed, no pauses Second reading: breaks after chunks of 4/5 connected words; read at a slower... activities do you want to try out? ASSESS THE LISTENING TEST Assess the Listening test in your handout • What are the strengths of this test? • What are the weaknesses? • How would you design a test using this listening script? . ASSESSMENT OF LISTENING Helen Huntley Senior English Language Fellow MOET, Hanoi, Vietnam The Reading /Listening Connection • How is the assessment of. of listening different from the assessment of reading?? • How is it similar?? Micro-skills for Listening • discriminate among the distinctive sounds of