Testing Listening


Testing listening involves a variety of skills. At the lowest level, it involves discrimination among sounds, discrimination among intonation and stress patterns, and comprehension of short and long listening texts. While the first two are part of listening, they are, of course, not sufficient.
Testing Phoneme Discrimination
Sounds are sometimes difficult to discriminate in a language other than one`s native language, especially if the sounds are not distinguished in the native language. There are several ways to test phoneme discrimination, that is, ability to tell the difference between different sounds. One way to test phoneme discrimination is to have the testees look at a picture and listen to four words and decide which word is the object in the picture. The words chosen as alternatives should be close to the correct word. However, it is often difficult to find common enough words with similar sounds, and if unfamiliar words are used, they will not make good alternatives. Alternatively, the testees could be presented with four pictures and be asked to choose the picture that matches the word that they hear. Another possibility is to give testees three words and ask them to indicate which two are the same. Finally, testees can listen to a spoken sentence and be asked to identify which one of four similar words were used in the sentence.
Items with full sentences have the drawback that testees can make use of not just phoneme discrimination but also knowledge of grammar and lexical items. If one of the words that the alternatives does not fit grammatically or semantically in the sentence, then testees who realize that have an advantage.
This type of discrimination item is one that can be used for diagnostic purposes to see whether students have particular problems with distinguishing between phonemes. However, it does not give the teacher any information about the testees` ability to comprehend spoken English.
Discriminating Stress and Intonation
The ability to recognize stress can be tested by having testees listen to a sentence that they also have in front of them. Testees are instructed to indicate the word that carries the main stress of the sentence. While recognizing stress patterns is useful in English, the problem with this type of test is that it lacks a context. Testees need to show that they can recognize the difference between "John is going today" and "John is going today," but they do not need to show that they understand that there is a difference in the meaning of the two sentence or what the difference is.
Ability to understand the meaning of difference in intonation can be tested by having the testees listen to a statement and choose from three interpretations of the statement. For example, testees might be given the statement "Vera is a wonderful musician" and be asked to decide whether the speaker is making a straightforward statement, a sarcastic statement, or a question. Since the context is neutral, however, it is sometimes difficult to avoid ambiguity. In real communication, listeners make use of their background knowledge, the context, etc., as well as the intonation to help them interpret the communicative meaning of an utterance.
Understanding Sentences and Dialogues
A teacher can also test the students` understanding of individual sentences and dialogues. In the simplest form, this type of item consists of a single sentence which testees listen to and four written statements from which they choose the one closest in meaning to the original spoken sentence. For example:
Spoken: I had hoped to visit you while I was in New York.
Written: A. I was in New York but did not visit you. B. I will be in New York and hope to visit you. C. I visited you in New York and hope to again. D. I am in New York and would like to visit you.
Another type of item is one in which the testees listen to an utterance and choose from among four responses the most appropriate response. In that case, the testees are not being asked directly what the meaning of the utterance is. Rather they are being asked to show that they know what it means by showing that they recognize an appropriate response. This tests both the testees` listening ability and their knowledge of appropriate second pair parts of adjacency pairs.
An example of this type of item is as follows.
Spoken: Would you mind if I visited you next time I came to New York?
Written: A. Yes, of course. I`d love to visit New York. B. No, I don`t really think that much of New York. C. Yes, I would. You can come any time. D. No, not at all. I`d really love to have you.
(At a slightly higher level, both the first statement and the responses can be spoken, but in that case, it might be better to have only three responses, since it would be difficult to keep all four responses in mind.)
In this example, the testees need to know that "Would you mind if I..." is a form used for asking permission, and that a positive response begins with "no (I don`t mind)." Because this type of