Ho w t o

ass e s s
s t e n i ng ?
li
Definition
Ioannou-Georgiou (2003) defines
assessment as “a general term which
includes all methods used to gather
information about student’s knowledge,
ability, understanding, attitudes, and
motivation.”
purposes
● General language proficiency.
● Representing oral skills.
● Assessing achievement.
● Diagnostic testing.
Approaches
 Discrete-point approach
It is possible to identify and isolate
the separate elements of a language
and test each one of these separately.
Common tasks in discrete-point approa
ch

● Phonemic discrimination tasks

● Paraphrase recognition
● Response evaluation
 integrative testing
It is possible to assess the learner’s
capacity
to use many parts of language, all at
the same time.
Common tasks in integrative testing
● Listening cloze
● Gap-filling techniques
● Dictation
● Sentence repetition tasks
● Translation
 communicative testing
Language is used for the purpose of
communication, in a particular situation
and for a particular purpose...
“Language proficiency is seen as communicative
competence” (Hymes, 1972).
 cHaracteristics

● Authentic texts
● Communicative purposes
● Authentic tasks
MATERIALS USED IN COMMUNICATIVE TESTIN
G
● Conversations, announcements,
service encounters, answering
machine messages, directions,
lectures, personal reports, news
broadcasts, interviews, debates,...
Strategies
 knowledge of the sound system
● Minimal pairs with decontextualized
words.
● Minimal pairs with word in a utterance.
● Recognizing grammatical structures.
● Recognizing intonation patterns.
● Recognizing stress.
understanding literal meanings
● Body movements tasks.
● Retention tasks.
● Picture tasks.
● Conversation tasks.
● Self-evident conversation tasks.
Going beyond literal meaning
● Understanding gist.
● General pasage comprehension.
● Information transfer tasks.
tests
characteristics of a good test
● Usefulness
● Reliability
● Validity
● Authenticity
● Interactiveness
● Impact
● Bias
● Washback
● Practicality
● Efficiency
 Test
specifications
● Purpose of the test.
● Test-takers.
● Sections of the test.
● Target-language use situation.
● Text types.
● Language competence.
● Language elements.
● Type of task.
● Testing techniques.
● Rubric.
● Criteria for marking.
 Questions
1. Which are the approaches to assess listening?
2. Mention the tasks used in integrative listening
tests.
3. What is the main goal in communicative testing?
4. Name at least 5 characteristics of a good listening
test.
5. What kind of strategies you could implement in
listening tests?
 references
● Assessing listening. Video. Taken from:
https://www.britishcouncil.org/exam/aptis/research/projects/assess
ment-literacy/listening

● Definition of assessment. Taken from:

https://is.muni.cz/th/342243/pedf_b/Bachelor_Thesis_Wiesnerova.p
df

● Buck, G. (2001). Approaches to assessing listening. In Assessing

listening. Cambridge University Press.
Thanks!