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On courses for very specific purposes, it is easier to identify the sorts of texts
the learners will encounter and the purposes for which they will listen to them but
there is no related set of subskills that we can identify with confidence that will allow
them easy access to texts in particular topic areas. We can, however, look at the
types of texts and identify key listening strategies to focus on. For example:
Situation
Skills needed
ANNOUNCEMENT
Good monitoring skills to decide on
relevance (Is this my flight?) and the ability
to extract vital data (gate numbers, platforms
etc.)
LECTURES
Listening
for
signposting
(sequences,
itemisation, prioritisation, importance etc.)
RADIO AND TV
Gist listening to entertainment to follow a
plot
Monitoring for relevance in a news broadcast
Using visual clues to understand TV
programmes
INSTRUCTIONS AND DIRECTIONS
Intensive listening for detailed understanding
MEETINGS AND SEMINARS
Intensive listening
to understand detail and
locate relevance
On-going monitoring to identify questions
and invitations to comment
DIALOGUES
Gist listening to follow a conversation
Intensive listening if the listener is a
(potential) participant
When we know what kinds of settings in which
our learners will need to
operate, we can get on with designing tests which assess how well they are able to
deploy the skills they will need.
Now we know what sorts of thing we want to assess, the text types we are
targeting, the purposes of listening, the
subskills deployed and so on, we can get on
and design some assessment procedures.
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There are some generic guidelines for all tasks. If you have followed the guide
to testing, assessment and evaluation (see above), you will know that this is
something of a balancing act because there are three main issues to contend with:
1. Reliability:
A reliable test is one which will produce the same result if it is administered
again (and again). In other words, it is not affected by the learner' mood, level of
tiredness, attitude etc. This is challenging area in the
case of assessing listening
because the skill requires high levels of concentration especially if more than gist is
to be gleaned. We need to be aware that very long listening tasks will result in fatigue
and that may overwhelm learners who are otherwise good listeners. Unless there is
a good reason for using a long text (e.g., when preparing people for study in English),
a range of short tasks focused as far as possible on micro skills is a better way
forward in most circumstances. Assessment outcomes are often in written form and
the listening text itself often recorded and repeatable
so marking can be quite
reliable.
2. Validity:
Two questions here:
a) Do the texts represent the sorts of texts the learners are likely to encounter?
For example, if we set out to test someone's ability to understand a lecture, we need
to ensure that the topic area is valid for them. On the other hand, if we know that our
learners will rarely, if ever, encounter the need to listen to extended monologues
from native speakers but will need to understand what they are told in service and
informational encounters, then we have to match the texts we use for assessment of
their abilities.
b. Do we have enough tasks to target all the skills we want to assess?
For example, if we want to test the ability to use context and co-text to infer meaning,
do we have a task or tasks focused explicitly and discretely on that skill? If we want
to test the ability to monitor a series of announcements for crucial data, do we have
a test that requires that skill?
3. Practicality:
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Against
the two main factors, we have to balance practicality. It may be
advisable to set as many different tasks as possible to ensure reliability and to try to
measure as many of the subskills as possible in the same assessment procedure to
ensure validity but in the real world, time is often limited and concentration spans
are not infinite. Practicality applies to both learners and assessors:
a) for learners, the issue is often one of test fatigue.
Too many tests over too short a time may result in learners losing commitment
to the process. On shorter courses, in particular, testing too much can be perceived
as a waste of learning time.
b)
for the assessors, too many time-consuming tests which need careful
assessment and concentration may put an impractical load on time and resources.
Assessors may become tired and unreliable.
c) The third issue concerns technology. If we know, for example, that our
learners will rarely have to understand audio-only, disembodied text, then providing
context and clues through the use of video recordings should be considered. Even
settings which are heavily text laden (such as lectures)
are accompanied by gesture,
expression and visual data that cannot be excluded from a valid test of the skills.
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