Bài giảng Phương pháp kiểm tra và đánh giá học tập - Chapter 6: Listening comprehension tests

Chapter 6: 
Listening comprehension tests
I. General
 Careful selected practice material
 an effective way of developing listening skill 
 used for testing listening comprehension
 an awareness of ways in which the spoken 
language differs from the written language is 
crucially important in testing listening 
comprehension skills
 some conventional features such as repetition,
hesitation and grammatical patterns are 
essential for the understanding of spoken 
English
 the tape recorder is the only way of ensuring 
compete uniformity of presentation and thus a 
high degree of reliability
 auditory tests are divided into two broad 
categories: (i) tests of phoneme discrimination 
and of sensitivity to stress and intonation, and (ii) 
tests of listening comprehension
II. Phoneme discrimination tests
Type 1: The test consists of a picture, 
accompanied by three or four words spoken by the 
examiner in person or tape.
Type 2: The testees hear three sentences and 
have to indicate which are the same and which are 
different.
Type 3: Testees are required to choose the 
written word which corresponds to the spoken 
word.
Notes
These items used for diagnostic testing purposes, 
enabling the teacher to concentrate later on specific 
pronunciation
 They useful when candidates having the same 
L1 background & when a contrastive analysis of L1 
& L2 can be used.
The ability to discriminate between certain 
phonemes very difficult for native speakers. 
III. Tests of stress and intonation
Tests of stress and intonation: less satisfactory 
than the phoneme discrimination tests b/c of # 
reasons:
 Most tests are impure as they test other skills at 
the same time.
 These items are artificial as they test rarer but 
more testable features.
IV. Statements and dialogues
These tests designed to measure:
how well students can understand 
short samples of speech
how well they deal with a variety of 
signals on lexical and grammatical 
levels of phonology
TYPE 1
 included in a grammar test, reading test 
or listening test , depending on whether 
the item is written or spoken 
 testing ability to understand both the 
grammatical and lexical features of a 
short utterance. (Candidates hear a 
statement and choose the best option from 
the four ones) 
TYPE 2
These items are an attempt to simulate 
speech situations (so they are more 
satisfactory that those of type 1)
 Testees listen to a short question and 
have to select the correct response from a 
choice of four printed ones. (part II, 
TOEIC)
V. Testing comprehension 
through visual materials
These item types more appropriate 
for the elementary stages of learning 
English.
Pictures, maps and diagrams used 
effectively for testing.
Testees’ performance: less dependent 
on other skills like reading & speaking 
and vocabulary 
TYPE 1
a picture is used in conjunction 
with spoken statements.
testees listen & pick out true & 
false statements.
(page 71)
TYPE 2
 there are five pictures in front of 
testees; they listen to 4 
statements & they’re required to 
choose the appropriate picture 
being described
(page 72) 
TYPE 3
used in a number of listening tests 
testees see a set of three or four 
pictures
they hear a statement & choose 
the most appropriate picture 
being described (page 73)
TYPE 4
Simple diagrams (lines, squares, 
rectangles, circles & triangles) 
used in a test of elementary 
comprehension 
Candidates look at each of the 4 
diagrams and then hear a series 
of statements about each diagram 
(page 73)
TYPE 5
used to access testees’ ability 
to understand instruction 
e.g. Tasks in C4 Interactions I 
maps can be used or adapted 
for testing (p.74-75)
TYPE 8 & 9
used to test students’ ability to identify and 
classify information (see example on p.81)
simple paper-folding and drawing can also 
be used to measure learners’ ability to 
understand instruction
Useful for ordinary classroom purposes, 
but difficult to administer in public 
exams 
VI. Understanding talks and lectures
Items of this type
very common & used to test students’ 
ability to understand both informal 
talks and formal lectures –an 
important skill
 English learners at intermediate and 
advanced levels
TYPE 1 & 2
 Testees listen to a short talk & 
select the correct answer about the 
talk
 Testees listen to a short talk & read 
a summary containing blanks; then 
they must complete the blanks 
(pages 82-83)
TYPE 3&4
 Hearing a short talk or lecture & 
answering questions on it
e.g. multiple – choice items, true/false 
items & incomplete sentences 
 the content of the text itself 
determine the type of item 
Notes
(1) Completion not recommended 
as testees facing with the tasks of 
listening, reading and writing 
simultaneously- an extremely 
difficult task even for native 
speakers
Notes
(2) Multiple – choice items may cause 
confusion because testees have to 
listen while reading all options 
carefully to make their selection
Notes
(3) It’s best to use true/false 
items since this reduces the 
amount of reading and 
selection to be made.