Assessing Listening

It has been observed that one of the most difficult skills to develop in a learning process is the listening comprehension. That is why, for the majority of learners this issue involves different kind of feelings like frustration, panic or boredom. According to Underwood (1989, 4) by ‘learning to listen’ we mean that “we want our students to attend to what they hear, to process it, to understand it, to interpret it, to evaluate it, and to respond to it. We want them to become active listeners”.

However, for many students, to obtain what was mentioned above is not an easy job. According to Brown (1993) there are some factors which make listening difficult: Clustering, Redundancy, Reduced forms, Performance Variables, Colloquial language, Rate of delivery, Stress, rhythm, intonation, and Interaction. But, if students take into account these aspects and they are awared of them, it will help us, as teacher, to challenge them appropriately and to assign weights to items. 

PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT

There are many things that we, as teacher, need to take into account when we assess our students. However, it is also really important to consider essential factors when we create and apply formal tests. According to Brown, H. D. (2000) there are five cardinal criteria for “testing a test”:  practically, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback.

First of all, a test should be practical; it means that a test should not be expensive or it should not consume too much time. A test should be easily to administer and it should have a scoring/evaluation procedure; for example: a test that can be scored only by computer is impractical if the test takes place a far away from the nearest computer. Secondly, when we talk about the reliability of a test it has to be taken into account a number of factors like: fluctuations in the student (temporary illness, fatigue, “a bad day” etc), scoring (human error or subjectivity), test administration (the conditions in which the test is administrated) and the test itself (the test can cause measurement errors) (Brown, H. D. 2000).

On the other hand, Validity contributes ensure that a test is measuring what it is assumed to measure. It is essential for a test to be valid because the results can be accurately applied and interpreted. Another major principle of language is Authenticity, and it is when the task is likely to be enacted in the “real world”. The language in the test is natural, the items are contextualized, the topics are meaningful and the tasks represent real-world tasks. Finally, Washback refers to the effects the tests have on instruction in terms of how students get ready for the test. (Brown, H. D. 2000).

As a conclusion, all these principles of a language testing are really relevant when attempting to assess students. We, as teachers, have to have these principles very clear in order to carry a better learning process in which students can develop their language skills successfully.

Introduction to evaluation

When we think about evaluation, immediately comes to our minds things related to grading. However, it is important to take into account some details which involve evaluation that will make us understand that evaluation is more than giving a score or deciding whether students should pass or fail.

Language evaluation in the majority of cases is concerned with making decision about instructions or plans for instruction. Teachers are the mainly responsible and continuously involved in second language evaluation. Nevertheless, parents and students themselves are also important participants in evaluation.

Second language evaluation relies on many different kinds of information, for example: student behavior in class, their attitudes towards school or themselves, their goals and needs concerning the outcomes of second language, learning styles and strategies.

On the other hand, tests can be useful in collecting information for second language evaluation. But tests are limited; they can only tell us about some aspects of student’s achievement. There are others ways to gather information; it could be through observation of student behavior during routine lessons, from comments by students during individual conferences, etc. All these can give us important data about student learning and the effectiveness of instruction, and based on that information, a decision can be made and different kind of interpretations will be drawn.

Assessment !