Topic: Technology and Innovation | Listening tests
Presenter: Andrew Fleck
Presentation details
Test developers recognise that the choice of item type in second language listening tests affects the difficulty, discrimination, validity, and authenticity of tests; teachers, meanwhile, want to understand how the use of particular item types will affect how listening is taught in the classroom. Both parties have an interest in understanding the degree to which item types engage the range of listening processes learners engage in real-world listening. Building on past literature, and on original research carried out on test takers drawn from a UK EAP programme, this presentation explores how two commonly used item types engage listening processes and how they affect test scores.
The presentation will briefly outline an academic view of the processes and strategies involved in listening and particularly in second language listening. It will discuss how previous researchers have addressed the question of how item types engage listening processes and affect test scores, before going on to the particular questions that my own research addresses: the effect of two item types on the difficulty, discrimination and validity of a test; the listening process that each item type engages; and how well test takers need to understand input stimulus before they can answer each item type.
In the research, a pre-existing set of multiple-choice items were re-written as short-answer items. Using a crossed design, these items were administered to 60 learners on an EAP programme at a UK university. Participants also recorded, for each item, their level of comprehension of the accompanying section of recording, and their approach to answering it. The data collected, on comparative performance and approaches, allows us to make some key inferences about the difficulty and discrimination of each item type and the processes and strategies engaged, as well as potential implications for teaching of listening and test preparation.
About the presenter
Andrew has over two decades' experience teaching EFL and EAP in Europe, South Korea and Britain. For the past six years he has been writing, reviewing and, more recently, managing test content for Trinity College London.
In 2023, he completed an MA in Language Testing at Lancaster University. His dissertation on task types in listening tests was highly commended by the Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award committee. Andrew lives near Newcastle, England.