LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Types of Listening Comprehension:

1) Intensive: listening for perception of the components (phonemes, words,

intonation, discourse markers, etc.) of a larger stretch of language.
2) Responsive: listening to a relatively short stretch of language (a greeting,
question, command, comprehension check, etc.) in order to make an equally short
response.
3) Selective: processing stretches of discourse such as short monologues for several
minutes in order to scan for certain information. The purpose of such performance
is not necessarily to look for global or general meanings, but to be able to
comprehend designated information in a context of longer stretches of spoken
language (such as classroom directions from a teacher, TV or Radio news items,
or stories). Assessment tasks in selective listening could ask students, for example,
to listen for names, numbers, a grammatical category, directions (in a map
exercise), or certain facts and events.
4) Extensive: listening to develop a top-down, global understanding of spoken
language. Extensive performance ranges from listening to lengthy lectures to
listening to a conversation and deriving a comprehensive message or purpose.
Listening for the gist, for the main idea, and making inferences are all part of
extensive listening.

Intensive

- Phonemes, words, intonation, discourse markers

Responsive

- short text-short response Question, greeting, command,

- comprehension check

Selective
- scanning for certain information

- names, numbers, directions, etc.

Extensive

- gist, main idea, inferences

Microskills

1. Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English.

2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory.
3. Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed and unstressed positions, rhythmic
structure, intonation contours, and their role in signalling information.
4. Recognize reduced forms of words. 5. Distinguish word boundaries, recognize a core of
words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
6. Process speech at different rates of delivery.
7. Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables.
8. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g.. tense, agreement,
pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms.
9. Detect sentence constituents and distinguish between major and minor constituents.
10. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
11. Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.

Macroskills

12. Recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations,

participants, goals.
13. Infer situations, participants, goals using real-world knowledge.
14. From events, ideas, and so on, described, predict outcomes, infer links and connections
between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting
idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification.
15. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
16. Use facial, kinesic, body language, and other nonverbal clues to decipher meanings.
17. Develop and use a battery of listening strategies, such as detecting key words, guessing
the meaning of words from context, appealing for help, and signaling comprehension or lack
thereof.
Designing Intensive Listening Tasks

Recognizing phonological and morphological elements

Phonemic pair, consonants

Test-takers hear:

Test-takers read:

He's from California.

(a) He's from California. (b) She's from California.

is he living?

(a) is he leaving? (b) is he living?

In both cases above, minimal phonemic distinctions are the target. If you are testing
recognition of morphology, you can use the same format:

Morphological pair, -ed ending

Test-takers hear:

Test-takers read:

I missed you very much.

(a) I missed you very much. (b) I miss you very much.

Phonemic pair, vowels

Test-takers hear:

Test-takers read:

Stress pattern in can't

Test-takers hear

Test-takers read:
My girlfriend can't go to the party.

(a) My girlfriend can't go to the party. (b) My girlfriend can go to the party.

vine

(a) vine (b) wine

One-word stimulus

Test-takers hear

Test-takers read:

Test-takers hear

Test-takers read:

Hellow, my name's Keiko. I come from Japan.

(a) Keiko is comfortable in Japan.

(b) Keiko wants to come to Japan

(c) Keiko is Japanese.

(d) Keiko likes Japan.

Dialogue paraphrase

Test-takers hear

Man: Hi, Maria, my name's George

Woman: Nice to meet you, George. Are you American? Man: No, I'm Canadian

(a) George lives in the United States

(b) George is American
(c. George comes from Canada
(d) Maria is Canadian.
DESIGNING ASSESSMENT TASKS: RESPONSIVE LISTENING

A question-and-answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower-end listening

tasks. The test-taker's response is the appropriate answer to a question.

Appropriate response to a question

Test-takers hear

Test-lakers read:

How much time did you take to do homework?

(a) In about an hour (b) About an hour

(c) About $10 (d) Yes, I did.

Open-ended response to a question

Test-takers hear

Test-takers write or speak:

How much time did you take to do your homework?

ASSESSMENT TASKS: SELECTIVE LISTENING

1.Listening Cloze

Listening cloze

Test-takers hear:

Ladies and gentlemen, I now have some connecting gate information for those of you making
connections to other flights out of San Francisco.

Flight seven-oh-six to Portland will depart from gate seventy-three at nine-thirty P.M. Flight
ten-forty-five to Reno will depart at nine-fifty P.M. from gate seventeen. Flight Jour-forty to
Monterey will depart at nine-thirty-five PM. from gale sixty. And fight sixteen-oh-three to
Sacramento will depart from gate nineteen at ten-fifteen PM.
Test-takers write the missing words or phrases in the blanks.

Information transfer: single-picture-cued verbal multiple-choice

Test-takers see:

a photograph of a woman in a laboratory setting, with no glasses on, squinting through a

microscope with her right eye, and with her left eye closed.

Test-takers hear:

(a) She's speaking into a microphone.

(b) She's putting on her glasses.

(c) She has both eyes open.

(d) She's using a microscope.

Information transfer: chart-filling

Test-takers hear:

Now you will hear information about Lucy's daily schedule. The information will be given
twice. The first time just listen carefully. The second time, there will be a pause after each
sentence. Fill in Lucy's blank daily schedule with the correct information. The example has
already been filled in.

You will hear: Lucy gets up at eight o'clock every morning except on weekends. You will fill
in the schedule to provide the information.

Now listen to the information about Lucy's schedule. Remember, you will first hear all the
sentences; then you will hear each sentence separately with time to fill in your chart.

Information transfer: single-picture-cued verbal multiple-choice

Test-takers see:

a photograph of a woman in a laboratory setting, with no glasses on, squinting through a

microscope with her right eye, and with her left eye closed.
Test-takers hear:

(a) She's speaking into a microphone. (b) She's putting on her glasses.

(c) She has both eyes open.

(d) She's using a microscope.

Information transfer: chart-filling

Test-takers hear:

Now you will hear information about Lucy's daily schedule. The information will be given
twice. The first time just listen carefully. The second time, there will be a pause after each
sentence. Fill in Lucy's blank daily schedule with the correct information. The example has
already been filled in.

You will hear: Lucy gets up at eight o'clock every morning except on weekends.

You will fill in the schedule to provide the information.

Now listen to the information about Lucy's schedule. Remember, you will first hear all the
sentences; then you will hear each sentence separately with time to fill in your chart.

3.Sentence repetition
Students can be asked to listen to sentences and they will be asked to repeat them.

DESIGNING COMPREHENSION TASKS: EXTENSIVE LISTENING

1.DICTATION

Dictation

First reading (natural speed, no pauses, test-takers listen for gist):

The state of California has many geographical areas. On the western side is the Pacific Ocean
with its beaches and sea life. The central part of the state is a large fertile valley. The
southeast has a hot desert, and north and west have beautiful mountains and forests. Southern
California is a large urban area populated by millions of people.

Second reading (slowed speed, pause at each // break, test-takers write):

The state of California // has many geographical areas. // On the western side // is the Pacific
Ocean with its beaches and sea life. // The central part of the state // is a large fertile valley. //
The southeast has a hot desert, // and north and west // have beautiful mountains and forests.
// Southern California // is a large urban area // populated by millions of people.

Third reading (natural speed, test-takers check their work).

COMMUNICATIVE STIMULUS-RESPONSE TASKS

Dialogue and multiple-choice comprehension items

Test-takers hear

Directions: Now you will hear a conversation between Lynn and her doctor. You will hear
the conversation two times. After you hear the conversation the second time, choose the
correct answer for questions 11-15 below. Mark your answers on the answer sheet provided.

Doctor: Good morning. Lynn. What's the problem?

Lynn: Well, you see, I have a terrible headache, my nose is running, and I'm really dizzy.

Doctor: Okay. Anything else?

Lynn: I've been coughing, I think I have a fever, and my stomach aches.

Doctor: I see. When did this start?

Lynn: Well, let's see, I went to the lake last weekend, and after I returned home I started
sneezing.

Doctor: Hmm. You must I have the flu. You should get lots of rest, drink beverages, and stay
warm. Do you follow me?

Lynn: Well, uh, yeah, but... shouldn't I take some medicine?

Doctor: Sleep and rest are as good as medicine when you have the flu.

Lynn: Okay, thanks, Dr. Brown.

Test-takers read:
11. What is Lynn's problem?
(A) She feels horrible.
(B) She ran too fast at the lake.
(C) She's been drinking too many hot beverages.

12. When did Lynn's problem start?

(A) When she saw her doctor.
(B) Before she went to the lake.
(C) After she came home from the lake.

AUTHENTIC LISTENING TASKS

These include:

Note-taking tasks: listen and take notes

Editing tasks-listen to audio and edit/correct

Interpretive tasks: listen to a story and a song or news report and answers questions based
on it.

Retelling tasks: listen to a story for example and retell it Interactive listening: listening and
interacting (dialogues or conversations, or interviews)