Whilst writing the specification I had to decide on the item types and tasks. Items can be elicited or responded to in either the oral or written form (Brown 2004:51). As this was a test to assess students’ listening skills, the eliciting clearly needed to be oral. However I had to make a decision about whether the students’ response should be oral or written. As a test needs to be practical, that is not take too long to complete or correct (Harris & McCann 1994:34), I decided that the responses should be written, as due to class size it would take too long to administer a test with oral responses for each individual student.
The next stage was to find appropriate texts; ones which would both match the specifications and yield suitable items (Alderson et al. 1995:43). In this case I decided to write and record my own listening texts as I found it very difficult to find authentic or published texts which matched the requirements of the test specifications and the level of the students, and therefore have content validity (Brown 2004:22-3).
There are four different types of listening performance which can be assessed: intensive, responsive, selective and extensive (Brown 2004:120), and within this test I have attempted to assess selective and intensive listening.
Part 1 is a matching exercise where students listen to five short conversations and match the subject of the text to a picture. This type of task can assess students’ selective listening in the form of an information transfer (Brown 2004:127). Students have to selectively listen to the short extract in order to extract the subject area and match it to the picture.
Part 2 is a multiple choice activity which assesses the students’ intensive listening. They listen to a ...
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The fifth claim is Australia should seek permission to use the UK Government’s Phonics Screening Check structure and item generation database (Buckingham, 2016). Evidence to support this claim is the report of The UK Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. The author provided so various kinds of details about the implementation of UK Phonics Screening Check, why it should be implemented, what the method of the application is, how the validity and the reliability of the test is. Also who should be included and excluded from the analysis, and how the method can improve student’s literacy level in the country. She assumes that this approach can be implemented in Australia, and Australia does not need to create its assessment independently. She assumes that even though Australia and United Kingdom has different policy context, the rationale is the same and by conducting a pilot study before implementing the Phonics Screening Check nationally, it will allow any technical
Dillon, Naomi. “LANGUAGE TEST. (cover story).” American School Board Journal 192.8 (2005): 10. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Feb. 2001.
Listening is a very popular topic and extensively discussed in today’s society. Listening is used to understand information, interpret messages and learn more about objects and other people. Michel Chion, author of “The Three Listening Modes”, discussed three main types of listening; these include causal, semantic and reduced listening. Along with these, there are also various other forms of listening that display different ways people hear and choose to interpret what they hear. The three modes of listening characterize how people listen and what they do with the information they gather and learn.
It is designed to evaluate the listening, reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills of English language learners. It is listed in the English and Language category and exam items includes: test booklet, directions for administering, screening test, screening test directions, response booklet, practice-test, practice test directions, cassette tapes, machine-score able test packs, speaking booklets, response keys, speaking/writing training manual with DVD, pre-test and post-test online training, and technical report manuals.
As Jones (1979,p.50) believed that “ by following established procedures,it is possible to design a format for administering and scoring a valid and reliable language performance test”. However, it seems to be an exceedingly simplified opinion of performance testing given the complication of validity as well as reliability problems in assessment. Alderson et al. mention (2001) that someone can impossibly produce a good test or a good item. The writer realizes which item is focused on the test and find it uneasy to understand that in fact it can be testing either something different or addition to which is being concentrated. Additionally, Lado (1961) no test is a perfect measure, so it is always an important responsibility for testing researchers, teachers as well as markers to know how to design a test which assesses the best abilities of candidates. There are many issues involved in performance assessment and particularly validity, reliability, authenticity and backwash effects have made language testers as well as educators concern them. In regards, it is the purpose of commentary to briefly discuss validity, reliability, authenticity and backwash issues and then the given writing task with approaches described in it will be analyzed following these features above and some solutions to improve the effect and quality of this writing task will be also proposed in this essay. Finally, there are some main arguments and conclusions in the context of assessment.
The purpose of this self-assessment is designed to help me establish my strengths and weaknesses on various dimensions of active listening (McShane & Von Glinow, 2016, p. 250)
Upon exploring the four different personal listening styles from which we had to choose, I was surprised to realize that I am considered a people-oriented and content-oriented listener. Another listening style which scored within close range of the aforementioned results was that of time-oriented listening. These results were greatly unexpected given my high level of energy and desire to accomplish goals, but certainly seemed to prove valid through my subsequent self-exploration.
At the beginning of the semester our class was introduced to a new term, listenability. The level of listenability is at the mercy of the speaker, not of the audience. During our semester, we were taught to harness the listenability keys of strategy, structure, support, and style in order to achieve a high level of listenability. Examples of listenability include when a speaker engages the audience by asking questions, using narratives or stories that people can relate to, and has stimulating visual support and content. These are only a couple of keys used to create a listener centered speech.
Effective listening entails combinations of deliberate efforts and an eager mind. Effective listeners value a surge of strong flow of ideas and information. The organisations that pursue the basics of effective listening are always kept informed timely and are equipped
The two most important listening styles are relational, and analytical. Relational listening is a style that is primarily concerned with emotionally connecting with others (Adler, 2015). Relational listening will allow me to build better relationships with the people around me. When displaying relational listening it shows that you care about the person and have a strong interest in maintaining the relationship between you and the individual. Analytical listening is a style of listening that emphasizes hearing all details of a message and then assessing it from a variety of perspectives (Adler, 2015). These listeners have a tendency to engage in systematic thinking, being able to quickly and comprehensively grasp patterns, principles and structures are critical to learning and
Listening is usually getting mistaken with Hearing. Different from Hearing, which is just a physical process, Listening is much more than processing sound (Downs 2008, pg. 1), it is making sense out of what is heard (Siguaw, Bojanic 2004, pg. 58) . Though Hearing is necessary for Listening, Listening is the key to decide whether the
The best way to model Good or Active Listening is to be a Good Listener ourselves. According to a research done in America, statistics show that Adults are 75 percent of the time not efficiently listening due to reasons being they are already preoccupied, distracted and forgetful. Another research also suggests that we adults expect more from students than we can expect from ourselves as well.
Keys to productive listening are; concentrating on what you hear, body language signifying your focused attention, open minded evaluation, avoiding defensiveness, paraphrasing as a response tool, observing and absorbing the emotional content, and lastly questioning to clarify intended meaning. (Lewis, T.
Those not thoroughly educated in communication tend to confuse the terms “hearing” and “listening.” Although they appear to mean the same thing, utilize the same body part, and are both required for functional communication, there is a great difference between these two actions. Hearing involves the perception of sound using the ears, while listening is based upon giving attention to the sound being perceived. Additionally, because these concepts are different, there are also several different ways of improving hearing and listening. Thus, there are several differences between these two concepts, and it is important to signify these differences in order to practice effective communication.
Listening is one of the most powerful tools of communication and is a process that is used to receive, convey a meaning, and respond to both verbal and nonverbal messages. It is what we choose to do and it requires more work than speaking. Oftentimes, people simply misunderstand the difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is a passive process that takes in sounds and noises and listening is what you choose to do. This selective process includes 5 phases that can be acquired for us to become effective listeners in the future. The 5 phases are attending, understanding, remembering, critically evaluating (listening), and responding. Once the 5 different areas are understood, we will become aware of what needs to change and how we can change them. This will also allow us to improve our listening skills in the workplace, school, at home, etc.