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单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,Chapter Six,Listening Comprehension Tests,Contents,6.1 General,6.2 Phoneme discrimination tests,6.3 Tests of stress and intonation,6.4 Statements and dialogues,6.5 Testing comprehension through visual materials,6.6 Understanding talks and lectures,6.1 General,Just as the author says at the beginning of this chapter: an effective way of developing the listening skill is through the provision of carefully selected practice material.,When selecting the material for listening, it is advisable to choose spoken language.,An awareness of the ways in which the spoken language differs from the written language is of crucial importance in the testing of the listening skills.,Why is the spoken language much more complex than the written language in certain ways?,Because of the large element of redundancy,（,冗余信息,）,containing in the spoken language.,What is redundancy used for?,e.g. Have you got to go now?,(See P64),(spoken question),When we hear the spoken question, we know immediately that it is a question by the rise in pitch on,go now,and by the inversion of the word order, that is, by both phonological and grammatical features. Thus, if the listener did not hear the question signal,Have you, the rise in pitch would indicate that a question was being asked. If the speaker,slurred over,（略过）,got to, the question would still be intelligible.,In addition, meaning might also be conveyed, emphasized and repeated by means of gestures, eye movements, and slight changes in breathing. Such features of redundancy make it possible for,mutilated,(,支离破碎的,),messages to be understood, even though the full passage is only partially heard.,Furthermore, the human brain has a limited capacity for the reception of information and, were there no such features built into the language, it would often be impossible to absorb information at the speed at which it is conveyed through ordinary speech.,Such conversational features as repetition, hesitation and grammatical,repatterning,are all examples,of this type of redundancy, so essential for the understanding of spoken messages.,Whats the authors attitude towards the ability to distinguish between phonemes?,The ability to distinguish between phonemes, however important, does not in itself imply an ability to understand verbal messages.,Moreover, occasional confusion over selected pairs of phonemes does not matter too greatly because in real-life situations listeners are able to use contextual clues to interpret what they hear. Although listeners rely on all the phonological clues present, they can often afford to miss some of them.,According to the author which one is easier to understand, impromptu speech or carefully prepared (written) material?,Impromptu speech is usually easier to understand than carefully prepared (written) material when the latter is read aloud.,Written tests generally omit many of the features of redundancy and,impart,(,透露,) information at a much higher rate than normal speech does. Then how to solve this problem when writing material for aural tests?,It is essential to make provision for restating important points, rewriting and rephrasing them when writing material for aural tests. The length of the segment in each breath group should be limited during delivery, for the longer the segment the greater the amount of information and the greater the strain on the auditory memory.,The pauses at the end of each segment should also be lengthened to compensate for the lack of redundant features. It is helpful if the speaker is seen by the listeners.,Auditory tests are divided here into two broad categories:,tests of phoneme discrimination and of sensitivity to stress and intonation,(,辨音测试,),tests of listening comprehension,（听力理解）,6.2 Phoneme discrimination tests,Type 1,(a) This type of discrimination test consists of a picture, accompanied by three or four words spoken by the examiner in person or on tape. (See e.g. on P 65),(b) Conversely, four pictures may be shown and only one word spoken, and it is better if the word is spoken twice.,Type 2,The,testees,hear three sentences and have to indicate which sentences are the same and which are different.,Type 3,(a) choosing one of the four words given which is the same as the one heard. (,testing phoneme discrimination and spelling ability,),（,See P66,）,(b) choosing one of the four words given which is contained in the sentence heard. (,testing proficiency in grammatical structure,) (See P67),(c) choosing one of the four definitions given for the word heard. (,testing not only the ability to discriminate between the different sounds of a language but also a knowledge of vocabulary,),The test items described above are all of limited use for diagnostic testing purposes, enabling the teacher to concentrate later on specific pronunciation difficulties. They are more useful when the,testees,have the same first language background and when a contrastive analysis of the mother tongue and the target language can be used.,Each individual test item in all the types must be kept fairly simple. Obscure lexical items should be avoided.,Much of the material in such tests is unfortunately very artificial, differing greatly from spontaneous speech.,The tester must attempt to pronounce every syllable using the same stress and pitch patterns. Why?,If the tester adopts a certain tone-pattern and rhythm which may irritate the listeners or affect their concentration; if the tester changes pitch(,音高,) this will only confuse the listeners.,6.3 Tests of stress and intonation,Although features of stress, intonation, rhythm and juncture,（连接）,more important in oral communication skills than the ability to discriminate between phonemes, tests of stress and intonation are less satisfactory than the phoneme discrimination tests treated in the previous section.,Type 1,Testing the ability to recognize word stress or sentence stress (See the example on P 68),Shortcomings: lacking context, very artificial. limited use for ear-training purposes,Type 2,The examiner makes an utterance and the,testees,have to select the appropriate description to indicate whether they have understood the original utterance. (See the examples on P68-69) This type of test item is sometimes difficult to construct. Since the context must be neutral, it is hard to avoid ambiguity.,6.4 Statements and dialogues(,单句和对话,),These items 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.,They are very suitable for use in tests administered in the language laboratory but they do not resemble natural discourse. The spontaneity, redundancy, hesitations, false starts and ungrammatical forms, all of which constitute such an important part of real-life speech, are generally absent from these types of items simple because they have been prepared primarily as written language to be read aloud.,Moreover, the responses required on the part of the listeners are not communicative responses in any sense at all. The listeners are not required to respond by interpreting what they have heard or by adding further information, as in real life. Such communicative responses, although ideal for many teaching situations, would be difficult to incorporate in such listening tests, especially those intended for particular diagnostic purposes.,Nevertheless, the importance of such responses in tests of listening should be borne in mind when communicative proficiency tests are being constructed in other words, when the test writer is interested in finding out what students can do with the language they are learning.,Type 1,This item type may be included in a test of grammar, a test of reading comprehension or a test of listening comprehension, depending on whether the item is written or spoken. It tests the ability to understand both the grammatical and lexical features of a short utterance.,(P69),The,testees,hear a statement (usually on tape) and then choose the best option from four written paraphrases.,Attention should be paid:,when constructing these items, it is advisable to keep the grammatical, lexical and phonological difficulties in the stem, leaving written options free of such problems and at a lower level of grammatical and lexical difficulty than the spoken stimulus.,Type 2,Choose the correct answer to the question heard.,Attention should be paid:,The question types should be varied as much as possible and Yes/No questions included as well as,Wh,-questions. This item type is useful for several purposes in class progress tests provided that the limitations indicated here are recognized and the item type is not over used.),6.5 Testing comprehension through visual materials,Most of the item types are more appropriate for the elementary stages of learning English. They are preferable to the discrimination items as they involve the testing of grammar and lexis through phonology.,Pictures, maps, and diagrams can be used effectively for testing such skills.,There are 9 types listed on Page 71-82, you can read them after class.,Type 1,True-false questions with a picture. (See the e.g. on P71),Type 2,Choose one of the five pictures according to the four sentences heard (descriptions).,Type 3,Choose one of the three pictures according to the sentence heard.,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 to testing such grammatical features as comparison, prepositions and determiners. (See e.g. on P 73),There is often a temptation for the test writer to be too clever and set an item testing intelligence (or mental agility,大脑敏捷度,) rather than language acquisition.,All four types are scarcely valid tests of the ability to understand natural discourse. Nevertheless, such items are of some use for certain purposes and are usually quite reliable guides to particular aspects of the listening ability.,Type 5,Designed to assess the,testees,ability to understand simple instructions. Any street map can be used or adapted for this purpose. (See the e.g. at the top of P75),Type 6,Exploiting visual materials for testing simple listening comprehension, i.e. testing the listening ability of students of mathematics.,Type 7,Complete the picture according to the oral instructions. The,testees,are presented with an incomplete picture (usually a simple line drawing) and are required to add to it pieces of visual information according to certain oral instructions they are given.,Type 8,Use pictures based on a listening comprehension talk in order to test students ability to identify and classify information which they have heard.,(See P81),Type 9,Simple paper-folding and drawing can also be used to measure ability to understand instructions.,The author reminds us:,(1) it is clearly important to keep any such drawing simple so that too much is not required from the,testees,.,(2) it is important to try out this kind of activity before giving it as a test item to students.,(3) it is also useful to build up an interesting story instead of limiting the comprehension test to instructions in single sentences.,Practical considerations should not be ignored in the administration of this type of test.,(1) Such tests are difficult to administer in the public tests.,(2) Coping is a simple matter and test reliability may thus be greatly affected.,(3) The item writer must be careful to test only the students ability to understand a spoken message- not the ability to interpret it and see hidden relationships.,6.6 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.,Type 1,Listen to a short talk and select the correct answer about the talk. (See P82),Type 2,Combining listening comprehension with reading comprehension. Listen to a short talk and then read a summary containing blanks. They must complete the blanks from the talk they have heard. The danger is that,testees,could successfully complete the written summary of the talk even if only little had been understood.,Type 3,The,testees,listen to a short talk or a lecture and are required to answer questions on it.,This type of test is generally administered in one of the following ways:,1. The,testees,receive note paper and take notes while they listen to the lecture. They are then given the question paper (usually consisting of multiple-choice item).,2. The,testees,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) multiple-choice items, or (b) true/false items, or (c) incomplete sentences.,3. The,testees,listen to the lecture and then receive the question paper. They read it through and then listen to the lecture given a second time.,A number of listening tests involve extra-linguistic factors- memory, knowledge of a topic and interest in that topic.,Remember that it is,the propositional meaning,of sentences which is retained by the listener (i.e. their general meaning and intention) and not the actual words or grammatical forms used to express that meaning.,根据语言哲学家,Austin,的言语行为理论观点，话段有两种不同的意义，一是命题意义（,propositional meaning,）,即话段的基本字面意义，一是非命题意义，即话语的语用含义。,Type 4,True/false items including a third choice ( no information available) (See P87),It is just as useful to test the ability to be aware of important information not given in a talk as it is to test information given in the talk.,What have you got from the lesson,today,?,
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