LISTENING TESTS
PAPER
This assignment is to
fulfill the requirements
for Language Assessment
Development
taught by Drs. Gunadi Hari Sulistyo, M.A.
By
Halla
Al Hartik 100221404956
Ita
Permatasari 100221404
FACULTY OF LETTERS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MALANG
February 2013
LISTENING TESTS
A. The Meaning of Listening Test
Listening: Getting meaning from
spoken language and all the sub skills that make up listening are all
subservient to this quest for meaning
Listening
ability: an ability to receive message of oral form into written form.
There
are three kinds of listening:
- understanding single words
- understanding single sentence
- understanding longer pieces of discourse
B. Kinds of listening test
a.
Understanding
single word
1.
Phoneme Discrimination Tests
A.
Type 1
This type of
discrimination test consists of a picture, accompanied by 3 or 4 words spoken
by the examiner in person or on tape.
The taker hears:
1. A. pin B. pen C.
pair D. pain
2. A. shark B. sock C.
sack D. shock
3. A. thin B. tin
C. fin D.
din
4. A. card B. cart
C. car D.
calf
After each group of 4
words he writes the letter of the most appropriate word for that picture
E.g 1. A 2.
B 3. B 4. A
b.
Type 2
Three
words are spoken on the tape: A, B, and C. sometimes all three words are the
same; sometimes two are the same; and sometimes all different. On the test
taker’s answer sheet appear the letters.
AB BC AC ABC O
The
test takers then hears groups of three words:
1.
A. bed B. bad C. beard
2.
A. road B. rod C. rod
3.
A. seat B. seat C. seat
4.
A. pick B. pick C.
pig
After that the
test taker put a circle to the appropriate groups of letter: if all the word
are different, he puts a circle around O.
1.
AB BC AC ABC O
2.
AB BC AC ABC O
3.
AB BC AC ABC O
4.
AB BC AC ABC O
c.
Type 3
in each of this item
one sentence is given on the tape: in the answer booklet four options of words
are given. The test taker is required to choose the written word that is
correspondence to the spoken sentence.
1.
(Spoken)
I’ll thread it for you
(Written) A. thread B. tread C.
threat D. dread
2.
(Spoken)
Did john manage to catch the train?
(Written) A. drain B. chain C.
plane D. train
3.
(Spoken)
Put the pan in some hot water
(Written) A. pan B. pen C. pin D.
pain
4.
(Spoken)
The color is very dirty, isn’t it?
(Written) A. collar B. cellar C. caller D.
color
B.
Test of Stress and Intonation
a. Type
1
This test is designed
to test the ability to recognize word stress or sentence stress. The test taker
listens to a sentence and is required to indicate the syllable which carries
the main stress of the whole structure. He shows the main stress by putting a
cross in the bracket under the appropriate syllable.
(Spoken)
I’ve just given THREE books to Bill
(Written)
I’ve just given three books to Bill
( )
( ) ( )( ) (
) ( ) ( ) (
)
(Spoken)
My Father will help you to do it
(Written) My Father will help you to do it
( )
(x) ( ) (
) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
Unfortunately this test lacks of context and is artificial in
many ways. It test only recognition of stress and is of limited use for
ear-training purpose.
b. Type 2
The test taker
hears a brief conversation, which is spoken three times: the first utterance
remains the same, but each time the response is spoken in different way. Two of
these responses are appropriate and natural, but a third response is
inappropriate and unnatural. Test takers have to indicate the exchange which is
inappropriate.
(Spoken) You
can’t smoke yet: Bill’s father won’t let him smoke.
A. But I’m older
than Bill
B. But I’m older
than Bill
C. But I’m older than Bill?
c. Type 3
The tester makes
an utterance and the test taker has to select the appropriate description to
indicate the whether he has understood the original utterance. The utterance is
spoken once only, but the test is based on the principle that the same
utterance may be spoken in several different tone patterns indicating a plain
statement, a question, sarcasm, surprise, annoyance, etc.
(Spoken) Tom’s fine goalkeeper
(Written) Tom’s
fine goalkeeper
The speaker is
A. making
a straightforward statement
B. being
very sarcastic
C. asking
a question
(Spoken) You will send me a couple
of tickets.
The speaker is
(Written) A. a request
B. a command
C. an expression of disbelief.
b.
Understanding single sentence
1.
Testing
comprehension through visual materials
Most of the items types in this
section are more appropriate for the elementary stages of learning English.
They are, however, preferable to the discrimination items previously discussed
in so far as they involve the testing of grammar and lexis through phonology.
Pictures, maps, and diagrams can be used effectively for testing such skills, thereby
making the test taker’s performance less dependent on other skills (e.g.
speaking, vocabulary and reading)
A. Type 1
This item type a
picture is used in conjunction with spoken statements. The statements are about
the picture but some are correct, and others are incorrect. The test taker has
to pick out the true (i.e correct) statements and write T (or put a thick V) at
the side of the appropriate numbers. He writes F (or puts a cross X) at the
side of the numbers of the false (i.e incorrect) statements.
(spoken)
- The
lorry’s passing the man on the motorbike.
- The
car’s travelling in the same direction.
- A
dog’s running in front of the car.
- A
little girl’s running after her mother.
- There
are two dolls in the pram.
- A
girl’s pushing the pram.
- The
two boys are looking in a shop window.
- A
very small boy’s helping the old woman.
- The
old woman’s going into the shop.
- A
tall man’s posting some letters.
- There
are a lot of cars in the street.
- The
two boys are on the same side of the street as the girl with the pram.
(written)
- 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
B. Type 2
In the following auditory
test, the student has 5 pictures in front of him. He listen to 4 sentences, at
the end of which he is required to select the appropriate picture being
described.
The student hears:
(1)
Both car
doors are open.
(2)
It’s
daylight but both headlamps are on.
(3)
The man
who’s repairing the car is lying underneath it.
(4)
Although
the boy sees the man working hard, he doesn’t help him.
Thus the student is able to narrow down the choice available to him
as follows:
(1)
B C D E
(only A shows one door open)
(2)
B D E
(only C shows the headlamps off)
(3)
B D (only
E shows the man standing up)
(4)
D (only B
shows the boys helping the man)
C.
Type 3
The following type of test item
is used in a number of auditory comprehension tests. The test taker sees a set
of 3 or 4 pictures and hears a statement (or a short series of statements), on
the basis of which he has to select the most appropriate picture. In the test
the test taker often sees a total 10 or 12 such sets of pictures.
The test taker hears:
- The car’s going to crash into the tree.
- Bill can’t run as fast as Mary.
- Tom wishes his sister could play tennis with him.
- The switch is so high that Ann can’t reach it.
D.
Type 4
Simple diagrams
(consisting of lines, squares, rectangles, circles, and triangles) can be drawn
to function as options in a test of elementary comprehension. Illustrations of
this nature lend themselves in particular testing such grammatical features as
comparison, prepositions and determiners.
Look carefully at each of the four diagrams. You will
hear a series of statements about each of the diagrams. Write down the appropriate
letter for each statement.
a.
b. c. d.
b. c. d. |
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(spoken)
- A white circle is inside a square.
- A black circle is above the square.
- A circle is on the left of a square.
- Neither a white nor a black circle is in a square.
- A black circle is under a square.
- A square is under a black circle.
- A square is on the left of the circle.
- A black circle is in a square but a white circle is outside the square.
E.
Type 5.
This test is
designed to assess the test taker’s ability to understand simple instructions.
Any street map ca be used or adapted for this purpose.
·
(spoken)
: you come out of school into Central Road and walk in the direction of Green
Lane. However, you take the left turning just before you reach Green Lane. At
the end of the street you turn right and continue until you come to the second
turning right. You cross this road and you will see on your right….. (which
building will you see?)
The following listening
comprehension test is in the form of dialogue. The idea on which it is based
was suggested by an actual robbery and a police chase. In this way, the
listener is given a greater sense of realism and an added interest in the
dialogue.
A: Have you heard about the raid on the jewelry shop in Clifton
Road?
B: Yes, in fact, I saw part of the chase. It was terrible.
A: You saw part of the chase? Good gracious.
I’ve only heard a very vague report about it. What exactly happened?
B: Well, the thieves planned to rob the shop
– You know, Wilson’s in Clifton Road – just
after it’d opened early yesterday morning.
A: In broad daylight? I didn’t know that.
B: They planned to arrive as the jewelry was
being taken from the safe into the big display window. They arrived in a large
red car which they parked on the opposite side of the road. Can you see the
place in this map I’ve got?
(1)
X: Write
the letter A on your map at the place where the thieves parked the car.
A: How many robbers were there?
B: Three. One waited inside the car and
other two walked over to the shop, carrying large briefcases. Once inside the
shop, they made the manager of the shop and his assistant lie down on the floor
while they felled the briefcases with jewelry. What they didn’t know, however,
was that another assistant was in the room at the back of the shop. He had
caught sight of the two thieves and had pressed a small alarm bell. At that
precise moment, a police petrol car was at... What’s it called? … I forget now,
but it’s in the junction between the Ritz and the road that runs past the
library.
(2)
X: Write
the letter B at the junction referred to by the speaker.
A: So things went wrong for the robbers from the start?
B: Yes, by the time the two robbers were
leaving the jeweler’s, the police car was ready turning into Clifton road. The
two men hadn’t even time to close one of the car doors properly, and a
frightened passer-by heard one of the men tell the driver to take the first
turning off the Clifton Road. A moment later, one of the briefcases fell out as
their car swung left.
(3)
X: Where
did the thieves lose one of the briefcases?
Write the letter C on the spot.
B: But that wasn’t the end of their
misfortunes. When they glanced back, they saw the police car gaining on them.
A: Didn’t they realize that it was all over?
B: No, they accelerated. They turned left and
then they turn right. Then they swung into a narrow street and stopped a few
yards down it at the side of a second car – most likely their get-away car.
(4)
X: Where
was the get-away car parked? Write D on your map.
A: Had they managed to throw off the police car?
B: No. As they were about to change cars,
they heard it coming up behind them. So they changed their minds and started
off again in the red car. At the end of the narrow street, they turned left
into Hilliard Road again and sped off in the direction of the stadium. At the
next but one junction before the stadium – you know, on the south side of it –
a second police car suddenly cut across their path and forced them stopped.
(5)
X: Write E
at the place where the robbers were forced to stop.
A: What on earth did they do then?
B: Well, by this time, they were really
desperate. The driver of the red car got out and fired a pistol at the police
car. But this didn’t stop the police. One of them scrambled over the bonnet of
the police car and chased the man with the pistol down Hilliard Road. The man
ran in the direction of the City Hall and then took the first turning left
after Regent Lane. Then he made as if to turn right, but just at the moment, he
tripped and fell. In a matter of seconds, two policemen were on him.
(6)
X: Where
was the man caught? Write the letter F to show the place.
A: Where were the other two robbers while all this was happening?
B: Well, by this time one was half way down
Regent Lane with two passers-by chasing him. He slipped through the narrow
street alley at the end of the Lane and turned right before dashing across the
road. He got most of the way down the road to the station before one of the
passers-by finally caught up with him and overpowered him.
(7)
X: Where
was this robbers caught? Write the letter G to show the place.
A: What excitement! I suppose the police soon caught the third man.
B: No, they didn’t. The third robber had a
shotgun and he’d sprinted along Regent Lane and into Main Street. He was about
to set off running in the direction of the market. Then he caught sight of a
butcher’s van travelling towards him. He stood quite still in the middle of the
road, pointed his gun at the bewildered driver and shouted to him to stop and
get out.
(8)
X: Write
the letter H to show where the robber stopped the van.
B: then he got into the van, started off down Main Street and turned
left only to find himself in the middle of the bus station! He quickly turned
round and headed up Main Street. Next he took the road leading to the main
entrance of the Football Stadium. Halfway down this road, however, he saw two
policemen on motorcycles in front of him at the end of the road.
(9)
X: Write
the letter I where the two police motor-cyclists were.
A: Well, he must have been well and truly cornered by now.
B: Yes, but he still fired several shots at
the motorcyclists. Then he reversed and jumped out of the van. He turned in the
direction of the City Hall. He hadn’t got more than a yard or two when he found
himself surrounded by dozen policemen.
(10) X: Write the letter J to show where the third
robber was caught.
A: And so at last he was caught?
B: Yes, and so was the manager of the jeweler’s shop.
A: What on earth do you mean?
B: Well, the police have just found out that
it wasn’t the real jewelry at all. It was imitation stuff. So the jeweler’s
been arrested for fraud!
F.
Type 6
There
are many other ways of exploiting visual materials for testing auditory
comprehension. The following kind of item may be useful in the testing of the
listening ability of students of science.
- Draw a straight line AB three centimeters long.
- Continue the line AB to point C so that AC is twice as long as AB.
- Draw a perpendicular from point B.
- Measure an angle 45o to be called DAC.
- Now draw the line AD until it meets the perpendicular at point D.
Question 1: how long is AD?
- Now join DC.
Question 2: What does angle ADC measure?
- Draw a line from point B parallel to AD and mark the point X where it Bisects CD.
Question 3: How long is BX?
- Now draw a line from X parallel to AC so that it bisects AD at Y.
Question 4: How long is AY?
Question 5: how many figures have you drawn?
What
are they?
d
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G.
Type 7
Another useful test
item (and exercise) which is independent of the speaking, reading and writing
skills is that in which the student is presented with an incomplete picture
(usually a simple line-drawing) and is required to add to it pieces of visual
information according to certain oral instructions he is given. The following
is an example of such an item:
(The test taker
looks at the picture)
(The test taker
hears)
1.
Draw a table and two chairs in front of the
café.
2.
Draw two
traffic lights on the opposite side of the road.
3.
Draw a
Zebra-crossing between Oxford School and the cinema.
4.
Draw a
lorry travelling in the opposite direction to the car.
5.
A
policeman directing traffic is standing in the middle of the junction. Draw
him.
6.
Although
there’s only one tree at the side of the block of flats, there are four trees
on the opposite side of the road. Draw them.
7.
Some
people have complained about the danger of crossing the road between the café
and the cinema. A pedestrian footbridge has now been built at this point. Draw
it.
8.
A man who
has been cleaning the windows of a flat on the second floor of the building
opposite the school has forgotten to take his ladder away. It’s still leaning
against the window on the extreme left of the front of the building. Draw it.
It is clearly important to keep any
such drawing simple so that too much is not required from the test taker. Basic
practice in matchstick drawing would be useful preparation for such listening
comprehension tasks in class progress tests. A simple country scene involving
the drawing of cows, trees, tents, pots, and pans, rivers, bridges, fish, birds
or an indoor scene involving the position of furniture and simple objects might
form a useful basis for such a listening test.
H. Type 8
Simple
paper-folding and drawing can also be used to measure ability to understand
instructions. E.g.
(spoken) Print your name in the top
left-hand corner of your paper: draw a one-inch line six inches under it. Draw
a small circle on the line and on the right of it draw a square roughly the
same size as the circle. Now, take the top right-hand corner and the bottom
left-hand corner and fold your paper so that the drawing appears on the
outside.
Practical
considerations, however, should not be ignored in the administrations of this
type of test. Although useful for ordinary classroom purposes, such tests are
difficult to administer in public examinations. Copying is a simple matter and
test reliability may thus be greatly affected. Moreover there is a tendency for
such tests to become tests of intelligence rather than of language proficiency.
The item writer must be careful to test only the students’ ability to understand
a spoken message – not his ability to interpret it and see hidden
relationships.
Many
children under the age of 12 have difficulty in seeing relationships in
pictures, (without prompting from the teacher) and in recognizing familiar
objects drawn from an unfamiliar angle (e.g. an aerial view of a school).
Students from rural areas, moreover, often lack the degree of sophistication
necessary to understand many visual conventions. Although many “westernized”
teachers and students understand the conventions used in the following
illustrations, countless others find them singularly meaningless.
(“The
alarm-clock is ringing”)
(“John
was very frightened”)
The
pictorial conventions used in many textbooks, though readily understood by
students using those books, have little meaning for other students.
Consequently, it is dangerous to adopt such conventions when constructing a
listening comprehension test for a number of schools, some of which may not be
using the text book containing the conventions adopted. The following are just
two examples of some pictorial conventions used adopted. The following are just
two examples of some pictorial conventions used in a textbook.
(“He
threw the ball over the house”)
(“The
church can’t be seen from here.”)
For teaching purposes, such conventions are
extremely useful. They can be used for testing purposes, however, only if every test taker is familiar with them.
C. Understanding discourse
1.
Statements
and Dialogue
These tests are designed to measure
how well students can understand short samples of speech and deal with a
variety of signals on the lexical and grammatical levels of phonology.
A. Type 1
This
test item may be included in a test of grammar, a test of reading
comprehension, or a test of auditory comprehension, depending on whether the
item stem is written or spoken. It tests the ability to understand both the
grammatical and lexical features of a short utterance. The test takers hear a
statement (usually on a tape) and then choose the best option for four written
paraphrases.
(spoken) I wish you’d done it when I told you
(written) A. I told you and you did it then.
B.
I didn’t tell you but you did it then.
C.
I told you but you didn’t do it then.
D.
I didn’t tell you and you didn’t do it then.
(spoken) It took Alan a long time to find he couldn’t mend my
bicycle.
(written) A. After a long time, Alan realized he was unable to mend
my bicycle.
B.
Alan spent a long time mending my bicycle but he was at last successful.
C.
Alan was a long time before he found my bicycle.
D. in spite of searching for a long time, Alan couldn’t find my
bicycle and, therefore, couldn’t mend
it.
When constructing these items, it is
advisable to keep the grammatical, lexical, and phonological difficulties in the
stem, leaving the written options free of such problems and at a lower level of
grammatical and lexical difficulty than the spoken stimulus.
B. Type 2
These items are more satisfactory than type 1 in so far as they are
an attempt to stimulate speech situations. The test taker listens to a short
question and has to select the correct response, from a choice of four printed
ones.
(spoken) Why are you going home?
(written) A. At six o’clock.
B.
Yes, I am.
C.
To help my mother.
D.
By bus
Each option
should be so constructed as to appear correct in some way to the test taker who
has not recognized the correct signals in the question. Thus, in the previous
item, option A would appear correct if the test taker had confused why with when, and option D if he had “heard” How signal the question. If, on the other hand, the test taker had
failed completely to pick up the WH-question signal, he would be tempted to
select option B, considering it the answer to a Yes/No question.
The
question types should be varied as much as possible and Yes/No questions
included as well as WH-Questions.
(spoken) Does Mary mind you playing the piano?
(written) A. Yes, she’s always thinking about it.
B.
No, she rather likes it.
C.
No, she doesn’t play the piano.
D. Yes, she must be careful.
In this item two of the distractors
(A and D) are based on confusion relating to mind in order to tempt any test taker who has failed to understand
the question accurately. Distractor C has been included to attract any test
taker who has generally misunderstood the question and thinks it is about Mary
playing the piano.
C. Type 3
Brief
dialogues are used in this type of test. Consequently, the test taker has
opportunity of hearing something approximating to a natural dialogue between
two speakers. A third voice may then ask the test taker a question concerning
the dialogue. The question may test straight-forward comprehension of the
dialogue or the test taker’s ability to make deductions or draw inferences from
the dialogue.
(Test taker hears):
“Would you like to watch TV tonight,
Tina?”
“No, John. I’m looking forward to a
game of chess. What about you?”
“I’m not worried as long as we do
something. Let’s do what you want”
(Test taker reads):
- John doesn’t really mind what he does.
- Tina wants to look at TV.
- John doesn’t want to play chess.
- John won’t be worried for long if he is with Tina.
(Test taker hears):
Man: “You’re never ready on time,
Mary. I’m sure we’ve missed the bus to town.”
Woman: “Let’s not argue here, Bill. Look.
That’s Mr. Green’s car. He’s stopping to give us a lift. And there’s the bus.
We can take our pick now!”
(Test taker reads):
- Mary and Bill have missed the bus to town.
- Mary and Bill are arguing about Mr. Green’s car.
- Bill is always late because he likes to pick flowers for Mary.
- Mary and Bill can go to town either by bus or in Mr. Green’s car.
In a few tests the options are
spoken instead of being written on the student’s test sheet. This method, makes
it extremely difficult for the test taker to make his selection and weigh one
option against another since throws far too heavy a load on memory.
2.
Understanding
talks and lectures
The ability to understand both
informal talks and formal lectures is an important skill for students studying
subjects in the medium of English at intermediate and advanced levels.
A. Type 1
Test taker listen to a short talk
and select the correct answer about the talk.
(spoken) There’s a marked tendency
for most developed countries grow steadily noisier each year. This continually
increasing amount of noise is uncomfortable and, what is more important, can
affect our health. The noise of machines, heavy traffic and airplanes
constitutes perhaps the most serious threat to public health. Such noise can
interfere with our ability to converse, it can disturb our sleep, and it can
quickly make us become nervous wrecks. A loud blast or an explosion may even
cause damage to our hearing. But there’s another danger – just as great. This
is the gradual damage which may be caused if we’re continually exposed to noise
over several years. Such exposure to noise can undermine our health - as well
as our performance and efficiency. Fortunately, technology is progressing at a
very rapid rate. Some manufactures are now designing new silencing mechanism in
their products, and planning experts are even beginning to plan cities to sound
zone.
(written) Only one of the following
statements about the talk you have just heard is correct. Put a circle round
the letter opposite the correct statement.
- Modern technology is now making towns in developing countries free a loud noise.
- The increase in noise is a problem which cannot yet be solved by modern technology.
- Gradual noise over a long period may have just as harmful an effect as loud or sudden noise.
- There is no real solution to the problem of increasing noise in modern life.
B. Type 2
Like type 1, this test combines auditory comprehension with reading
comprehension. The test takers hear a short talk and then read a summary
containing blanks. They must then complete the blanks from the talk they have
heard. The danger here, however, is that the test takers could successfully
answer the written summary of the talk if only a few of the clues had been
heard.
(spoken) Would you like a robot in
your house? It’s now generally accepted that in the future robots will take
over many of our tasks, especially jobs of repetitive nature. But it’s highly
doubtful if robots will ever be able to do any of the more creative types of
work – or indeed if people would want them to. In the home, robots would
probably be used to do the cleaning, scrubbing and washing up, but it’s
considered unlikely so far that they’ll be used to do the cooking – at least,
not in the near future. According to engineers, robots will do nothing more
original or sophisticated than they have been programmed to do by human beings.
And so robots in the home might not be creative enough to do the cooking, plan
meals, and so on. They would be used as slaves, thereby freeing people to do
more of the things they wanted.
In
factories, mobile robots would carry out all the distribution and assembly
tasks while human beings carried out research and drew up plans for new
products. Human being would still be responsible for diagnosing faults and for
repairing and maintaining machinery. On the farm, robots would probably drive
tractors; they’d be programmed to keep their eyes on the ground in front of to
guide the tractor along a straight line or between rows vegetables.
The robots themselves would probably
not look at all like human beings because their design would be chiefly
functional. For instance, it would not be at all surprising to find a robot
with an eye in the palm of its hand and a brain in one of its feet!
(written) The following passage is a
written summary of the short talk you have just heard. Give the correct word
which can be used in place of each number in the following passage.
In future (1) will do many jobs,
particularly those which are (2) by nature. It is generally doubted if they
could do (3) work and in the home they would probably not do things like (4).
Robots will do nothing more (5) than they have been (6) to do by human beings.
A robot would be a kind of (7), freeing human beings so that they could do
whatever they wanted. Although robots would be used in factories, human beings
would probably (8) the machinery. On farms, robots would probably drive (9).
The robots would look (10) human beings because they would be (11) in design.
It would even be possible for a robot to have an eye in its hand or a (12) in
one of its feet.
C. Type 3
The
student hears a short talk or lecture and is required to answer questions on
it. Unless the student is allowed to take notes on the talk, the test may put
too heavy a load on the memory factor. In certain instances, in fact, it may be
desirable to give the test taker some guidance for note taking. The provision
of a list of points on which questions will be asked may improve the test.
The
following is an example of a test based on a (fictitious) novelist; the
questions that follow relate to the novelist’s place of birth, early influences
on his childhood, the books he read at school, his first publications, his
travels, etc. the sheet given, to each test taker a few minutes before the lecture reads as follows:
NOTE PAPER
You
are going to hear a talk about Charles Edward Blackwell, a writer of children’s
books. You are being tested on your ability to listen and understand. After the
talk you will be asked 25 questions about Charles Edward Blackwell.
This
sheet of paper is for any notes which you wish to take while are listening to
the talk. The notes will not be marked in any way by the examiner.
The questions you will be asked
after the talk will be about the points listed below. A space has been left to
enable you to write notes for each point.
- What Blackwell enjoys doing.
- Blackwell’s birth.
- His age at the time of economic depression.
- The books of Blackwell read.
- Etc.
The test taker may take notes during the lecture. They will later
receive the following answer sheet.
INSTRUCTIONS
You have just heard a talk about
Charles Edward Blackwell, a writer of children’s books. You are being tested on
your ability to listen and understand. You now have 15 minutes to answer the
questions which follow. The 25 questions follow the order of the talk and you
should complete each statement with the best answer. Write ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, or
‘D’ on the line provided at the side of each question. DO NOT WRITE OUT THE FULL ANSWER. Here is an example:
This talk is about Ex. C
……………..
- Writer’s of children’s books.
- Children’s reading.
- Charles Edward Blackwell.
- Leeds University.
1.
Blackwell
enjoys 1. …………..
A.
writing
books for children.
B.
giving
lectures for writers.
C.
reading
books for children.
D.
talking
about himself.
2.
When
Blackwell was born, his father was 2. …………..
- a cricketer.
- an inn-keeper.
- a writer.
- a factory-worker.
3.
At the
time of the great economic depression Blackwell was 3. …………..
- Three years old.
- Five years old.
- Twenty-five years old.
- Thirty years old.
4.
When
Blackwell was a boy, he read 4. …………..
- Books about child’s geniuses.
- Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.
- Stories written for boys of his age.
- Advice about writing for children.
This type of test is generally
administered in one of the following ways:
(i)
The test
takers receive note paper and take notes while they listen to the lecture. They
are then given the question paper (usually consisting of multiple-choice items)
(ii)
The test takers receive the question paper
first and are given a few minutes to glance through it. They then hear the
lecture and work through the questions. The questions are generally in the form
of (a) m/c items (b) T/F items, or (c) incomplete sentences. Completion, however,
is not usually to be recommended as the test takers are faced with the tasks of
listening, reading, and writing simultaneously – an extremely difficult
operation for native speakers. Even m/c items may cause confusion (especially
if not carefully spaced out throughout the lecture), since the test taker has
to listen while reading carefully through all the options and making his
selection. Indeed, if this particular procedure is to be adopted at all, it is
perhaps best to use T/F type items since this reduces the amount of reading and
the selection to be made.
(iii)
The test
takers listen to the lecture and then receive the question paper. They read it
through and then listen to the lecture given a second time. Although test
takers will be listening with a purpose during the second “reading” of the
lecture, the criticism made previously still apply. Moreover, this test does
not approximate as closely to a normal lecturing situation. Students will then
be tested in handling a wide variety of features of a lexical, structural,
rhetorical and conceptual nature.
Such
tests unfortunately involve extra-linguistics factors – memory, interest in the
topic, etc. since interest in the information content of the lecture or
previous knowledge of the topic may favour a particular group of test takers,
the talk should be kept as “neutral” as possible in both content and language.
The taking of notes minimizes the memory factor, but the test itself may then
become more a test of note-taking skills
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