UNIT 5 ASSESSING LISTENING AND

SPEAKING
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Some Task Considerations for Listening And Speaking
5.3 Testing Listening Skills
5.3.1 Stages of a Listening Task
5.3.2 Listening Activities for Testing

5.4 Rating Scale for Listening

5.5 Assessing Speaking Skills
5.5.1 Rating Scale for Spoken English

5.6 Let Us Sum Up

5.7 Suggested Reading
5.8 Answers

5.0 OBJECTIVES
As teachers of a second language we want our learners to comprehend and use the
language in real life situations. Under the circumstances we need to develop their
oral and aural skills. In order to ensure that this is really happening we need to
assess these skills.
After going through this unit you should be able to:
 understand the need for assessment of oral-aural language skills;
 appreciate the important role of assessment for enhancing the development of
oral-aural skills;
 understand the complexity of assessing these skill areas, and identify some
simple ways of doing so within the classroom context;

5.1 INTRODUCTION
As teachers we need to be very conscious of the role as well as complexity of
assessment, so that it helps the learner and does not become counterproductive.
Assessment has often come to mean something threatening which learners shy away
from. We need to consider this very carefully in planning an assessment methodology.
The skills of listening and speaking go a long way in developing fluency in the second
language. However, we need to remember that listening and speaking are also social
skills. Socio-emotional factors influence these skills. For example, the child’s self
image, the level of confidence, the willingness to experiment and make mistakes
without fear of ridicule will affect the development of good listening or speaking
skills. We need to keep in mind the personality traits of children. The assertive child
or the shy and timid child will respond very differently on a speaking task, and their
performance may have nothing at all to do with their degree of language competence. 75
Listening Comprehension It may just be a reflection of their personalities. It is therefore extremely important to
and Speaking
be aware of the purpose of assessment, and make sure that this purpose is not
undermined in any way.
Assessment is useful if it is looked at positively, as a process which enables and
enhances learning. It becomes more effective if the learners happily participate in
this process. The teacher’s role is to ensure that assessment is friendly and non-
threatening.

5.2 SOME TASK CONSIDERATIONS FOR ASSESSING

LISTENING AND SPEAKING
The effectiveness and appropriateness of a task is an important consideration for
the purpose of assessment. Learning a second language is not just a matter of
memorising a different set of names for the things around us; it is also an educational
as well as a social experience. Learning is more effective if learners are actively
involved. We find that activities for practicing listening and speaking no longer
concentrate on purely structural and lexical training. They have expanded into the
fields of value education, personality building and practical applicability. The impact
of learning a second language on shaping the learner’s personality is slowly being
recognised. As teachers we would like our learners to be sensitive towards the
feelings of others and share their joys and worries. The atmosphere within a class
can largely be determined by the teacher who quite often sets the tone by choosing
certain types of topics and activities.
Assessment helps a teacher to develop opportunities for effective and real
communication in the classroom, so that language functions and structures are
practiced in meaningful ways. For example, two devices which may help the teacher
in making up communicative activities are: information gap and opinion gap.
Information gap forces the children to exchange information in order to find a solution
to a problem that they have been given. Opinion gaps are created by using
controversial texts where the children are required to take a position and defend
their views, or by letting children share their feelings about common experiences.
Thus, by applying the principles of information gap and opinion gap to suitable
traditional exercises the teacher can change them into more challenging and meaningful
communicative situations. It is for the teacher to remain alert and use the feedback
from assessment to determine what is working well and what requires modification.
The class then remains constantly alive. It is not a matter of repeating the same
activities year after year, but of constantly creating new opportunities to suit the
requirements of each class and learner.

5.3 TESTING LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is a skill that is used frequently. As adults we spend almost half of our
communication time in listening. Learners receive 90% of information at school by
listening. However listening as a skill is seldom developed consciously or tested.
Although now there is a recognition that listening ability must be developed and
assessed.
Listeners do not passively receive aural input, they actively involve themselves in the
interpretation of what they hear. In doing so they bring their own background
knowledge and linguistic knowledge to interpret the aural input. Listening involves a
sender, a message and a receiver. Listeners have to process messages as they come
and cannot backtrack or look ahead. In addition the listener has to cope with the
76 sender’s choice of vocabulary, structure and rate of delivery. It is important for
teachers to help their learners become effective listeners. In order to do this, the Assessing Listening
and Speaking
assessment of listening skills also gains importance as this skill will then be taken
more seriously.
When preparing listening tasks for assessing purposes, which sometimes resemble
reading comprehension tests, some important elements to be kept in mind are:
The listening stimuli
This should represent typical oral language and not the written language read out to
learners. The language should resemble language heard in the classroom, in various
media, or in conversations. These should be interesting and short. They should relate
to the learners’ experiences and should not be coloured by gender, socioeconomic
or racial/ethnic issues.
The questions
Multiple choice questions are preferred. These should focus on important aspects
of the passage and not trivial details. Answers must relate to the passage and not be
based on the learner’s prior knowledge.
Performance tests are also acceptable where the learner selects a picture or performs
a task based on oral instruction. Learners may have to select a picture after listening
to the description. They could also be given a map and asked to trace a route.
The test environment
The environment should be free of external distractions. If a recorder is used, it
should have good sound quality. If the test administrator is presenting material, it
should be presented clearly and with appropriate volume.
Authentic materials
It is good to use authentic materials like radio and television programmes, public
address announcements, speeches and lectures, telephone recordings, movie
recordings etc.
Measuring the development of listening is not an easy task. Listening involves cognitive
skills such as recognising sounds, coding the sounds into meaningful units, processing
a discourse in terms of cohesion and logical order (i.e. being able to connect the
various sentences spoken with the logical order in which they have been presented).
Listening also involves being able to infer the speaker’s intentions, his/her purpose.
It includes the ability of picking up non-linguistic cues such as gestures, facial
expressions, intonation, etc. Social skills such as responding with attentiveness to a
speaker are also aspects of listening. If we wish to describe the development of
listening ability, we need to take all these factors into account. Several assessment
scales have been developed to show the range of listening abilities within a group or
class. These scales look at aspects of listening comprehension, commonly used
strategies and appropriateness of interaction. While the first two look at cognitive
and intellectual skills, the third deals with social skills. Most scales are able to only
roughly categorise where a person should be placed. They are useful only because
they are able to highlight areas of knowledge, not performance, in which the child
needs to concentrate efforts for improvement. One common way of assessing the
development of listening skills is by rating or marking children on suitably designed
listening tasks. These tasks need to be carefully planned so that they assess children’s
performance in various aspects of listening. Based on the type of response that is
expected from the listener, listening comprehension and listening perception, activities
can be classified into two types. 77
Listening Comprehension a) Activities which require productive checks as responses
and Speaking
- write words or sentences
- make notes
- reconstruct the story
Here the listener is expected to listen, comprehend and recreate what was
heard. It therefore involves active mental processing on the part of the listener.
Such activities measure higher order listening skills such as comprehension and
understanding.
b) Activities which require non-productive checks as responses
- tick marks
- crossing
- numbering
- lettering
- raising of hand
- showing a picture or object.
Here the listener is expected to receive the auditory input and respond to the correct
sound quickly in one of the ways mentioned above. These tasks measure lower
order listening skills such as attentiveness, sound discrimination, and concentration.
We need to provide a range of listening activities which cover the various aspects
mentioned above. Children’s responses can be marked and each child’s progress
assessed. If a child has a specific problem, the teacher would need to deal with it
individually. Children enjoy listening tasks and these should not become fearsome
things simply because they are being marked. Children should be able to see evaluation
as an indicator of their own progress as well as an indicator of their strengths and
weaknesses, so that they are able to make efforts to improve their listening abilities.
Check Your Progress 1
Note : Write your answers in the space given below:
1. What are the points to be kept in mind when designing a listening task for
assessment? Elaborate.
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5.3.1 Stages of a Listening Task

Listening tasks involve three steps, which are as follows:
Pre listening: when planning for the task decide:

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 what to listen for
 if more linguistic or background knowledge is required Assessing Listening
and Speaking
 whether to address the overall task or merely some different words and phrases
While listening tasks: When monitoring comprehension
 verify predictions
 decide what is important and what is not
 ask learners to listen again to check their answers
After listening: Assessing comprehension and strategy
 assess understanding of a particular area
 assess overall progress
 decide if appropriate strategies have been used
 integrate listening with the other skills
 modify strategies for the next activity, if required
Check Your Progress 2
Note : Write your answers in the space given below:
1. What are the three stages involved in designing listening tasks for assessment?
Discuss.
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5.3.2 Listening Activities for Testing

Task should involve real life situations such as locating a place on the map, exchanging
information regarding name and address, or eliciting information from a story. The
goal of the activity should be clearly specified. Each activity should be designed to
test listening strategies, some of these strategies are listed below:
 Discriminating important from unimportant parts of a message
 Identifying the main ideas
 Identifying supporting details
 Replication of the important ideas heard
When designing pre listening activities keep in mind/give support by:
 learners’ background knowledge
 clarifying, if required, any cultural information needed to understand the task
 creating an awareness of the purpose of the task
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Listening Comprehension  providing for group discussion as a background
and Speaking
Sample pre listening tasks could be:
 Looking at pictures and maps
 Reviewing grammatical structures for test readiness
 Reading something relevant to the task
 Predicting the content
 Going over the instructions
 Doing guided practice
While listening tasks relate directly to the text and learners attempt them during
or immediately after listening. During the while listening stage we should:
 allow learners to read the instructions before attempting the task
 keep writing to a minimum while listening, therefore, use multiple choice, true/
false or fill in the blanks questions
 guide learners through the task
 ask questions that are focussed
Sample - While Listening Tasks
 Listening with visuals
 Filling in graphs and charts
 Following a route on a map
 Checking off items in a list
 Listening for the gist
 Searching for clues
 Completing the blanks
Post Listening Activities
Listening is usually tested through post listening activities. These activities should
reflect if the learners have successfully acquired listening strategies.
When developing post listening tasks we must make sure they replicate authentic
situations e.g. listening to a weather report and then deciding what type of transport
to be used and the type of clothes to be worn, etc.
Finally, when designing listening activities, one of the challenges faced is integrating
the listening activities into classroom experiences and maintaining learner interest
and motivation. Care should be taken to ensure that the listening activities do not
just emphasize the right and wrong answers but the process of getting the meaning
from the choices given.

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Check Your Progress 3 Assessing Listening
and Speaking
Note : Write your answers in the space given below:
1. What should be kept in mind when designing pre listening tasks?
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2. What should be kept in mind when designing while listening tasks?
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Guidelines for Developing Listening Activities
 Orient learners to the recorded programmes by doing several such activities in
the class.
 Discuss different strategies to use to answer the questions
 Review the vocabulary list in the task. Is it familiar to the learners?
 Preview the recorded material or video
 Identify the type of programme –song, news, drama, etc.
 Make a list of predictions about the content
 Decide how to divide the recorded material for intensive listening
 Ensure that learners are clear about what is expected from them
 Let them jot down key words
 Let them answer the questions on the worksheet
 Monitor the comprehension and assess the progress by self monitoring.

5.4 RATING SCALE FOR LISTENING

Level five - Good listener
Primary level: Able to understand speech about personal topics, involving concrete
objects. Ability to understand tone of voice, give appropriate listener responses.
At the higher elementary level: Able to understand different styles of Indian English
and the ability to understand abstract concepts required for academic purposes.
Ability to seek clarification when the speaker is unintelligible, and critically evaluate
the speaker’s tone of voice. Gives appropriate listener responses in a wide range of
social setting.
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Listening Comprehension Level Four: Competent listener
and Speaking
Primary level: Able to more or less understand speech on personal topics involving
concrete objects. Some ability to understand tone of voice of the speaker and give
somewhat adequate responses.
At the higher elementary level: Some ability to understand different styles of Indian
English and can process some abstract concepts required for academic purposes.
Can somewhat critically evaluate the speaker’s tone. Able to give appropriate listener
responses in many social settings.
Level Three: Listener of adequate ability
Primary level: Can understand some conversations in English but may require some
repetition.
At the higher elementary level: Able to understand spoken English to some extent.
May require repetition or explanation. Limited ability to critically evaluate speaker
and may get occasionally confused.
Level two: Listener of limited ability
Primary level: Can barely understand speech about personal information and concrete
object. Needs translation in the mother tongue.
At the higher elementary level: Ability to process spoken English to a limited extent.
Not able to understand unfamiliar abstract concepts, requires some degree of
translation into the mother tongue.
Level one: Weak listener
Primary level: Can hardly understand English speech except said at very slow speed
about personal matters. Needs paraphrase in the mother tongue.
At the higher elementary level: Can understand English speech about personal matters.
Clarification can only be asked in the mother tongue. Considerable amount of
paraphrase is required in the mother tongue.

5.5 ASSESSING SPEAKING SKILLS

Before we even begin to discuss the testing of speaking skills we need to actually
identify the series of language operations that the skills of speaking will involve.
When designing the tasks to be used to test a particular skill, we need to conceptualise
how the skill will be tested and validated.
Testing spoken ability is said to be one of the most difficult tasks. Some of the
parameters to be kept in mind are:
Planning
Speaking tests have to be planned carefully keeping in mind the number of learners
as they are tests that have to be conducted at a personal level or at best in a small
group. In case there is pair/group work involved, it is important to ensure attendance
of everyone, plan the total time to be taken, and also levels of proficiency of the
different speakers. This could mean really long hours of work for the examiner if the
numbers are large.
The test taker
It is necessary in any speaking test to clearly define the test taker. These may be
82 broad parameters eg.
 Expected linguistic output. Assessing Listening
and Speaking
 Age appropriate tasks.
 Background of the test taker in terms of exposure to the language outside the
classroom.
 Awareness of long term disabilities like speaking, hearing, vision problems,
etc.
 Cognitive style, this refers to the way an individual perceives information. Some
test takers may not be able to interpret a graph so if the task is related to
answering questions based on the graph, the candidate may not be able to do
so .
 Motivation, concentration, emotional state, test preparedness are other
conditions that may affect test results
Mechanisms of speech processing
We must remember when designing any task for testing speech, that there are certain
mechanisms involved in speech or conversation. We produce speech by first
conceptualising the message, then formulating it in a particular language, and finally
articulating it. We need to know this for the purpose of validating a test as well as
understanding the operations that the test takers perform when attempting a task.
Criteria for developing speaking tests
It is important to define a set of criteria on which the speaking test must be based.
These could be:
 Managing interaction
 Providing personal and non personal information
 Elaborating/justifying
 Expressing opinions
 Justifying opinions
 Persuading and comparing
 Complaining /asking for information
 Negotiating
 Making excuses
 Explaining
 Narrating
 Paraphrasing
 Summarising
Review of tests
When reviewing a test these are some of the criteria that should be kept in mind.
 Purpose. What is the strategy the task is looking at?
83
Listening Comprehension  Information. What is the information expected from the speaker? The nature of
and Speaking
the information expected is important . If it is too abstract it may not be as
forthcoming as information that is more concrete.
 Response format . What is the expected format of the response?
 Criteria for assessment . Is the candidate aware of the criteria for assessment?
 Time constraints. Is the time clearly specified?
 Examiner and speaker relationship is very important as it sets the tone of the
test.
 Topic familiarity leads to superior performance.
Check Your Progress 5
Note : Write your answers in the space given below:
1. What is to be kept in mind when planning a speaking test?
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2. What aspects of the test taker should be kept in mind when designing speaking
tests?
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3. What are some of the criteria that should be kept in mind when reviewing a
speaking test?
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5.5.1 Rating Scale For Spoken English

Level five: Can speak fluently on familiar and common topics; may have difficulty on
finding an adequate vocabulary for unfamiliar topics.
Can produce simple sentences correctly. There may be a few errors in complex
sentences, idioms, and collocations.
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Most of the words are pronounced correctly. However, there may be some minor Assessing Listening
and Speaking
problems with stress in words and in sentences. There is adequate chunking. Intonation
patterns are more or less correct.
Level Four: Fairly fluent in familiar topics but may have some difficulty in unfamiliar
topics. There may be some lapses in fluency but this will not affect communication.
Fully active concrete vocabulary and a large passive vocabulary. Simple sentences
are mostly correct but there might be some inaccuracy in complex sentences.
Pronunciation of some words may be faulty as would be stress and intonation but
this does not affect over all comprehension.
Level Three: Communicates adequately in most every day contexts; has sufficient
range of vocabulary; basic structures are more or less correct but there is considerable
inaccuracy in complex structure. There are places where it is difficult to comprehend
the speech of the learners. Some words may be difficult to understand due to
mispronunciation. Stress and intonation may be faulty.
Level two: Can communicate on personal matters. Has limited social conversation.
Can answer simple questions about personal topics correctly in present and past
tenses. Has difficulty with question formation and tenses even in simple sentences.
Complex sentences attempted but are always wrong. Vocabulary very limited. Due
to mispronunciation, there are stretches of conversation which are incomprehensible.
Speech too slow.
Level one: Limited communication even about personal matters. May know formulaic
greetings such as good morning, how are you?, etc. Vocabulary inadequate. Cannot
construct correct simple sentences. Complex sentences totally missing. Due to
mispronunciation, large stretches are incomprehensible.

5.6 LET US SUM UP

Evaluation is a complex process, more so when we have to assess listening and
speaking skills in the second language. In the Indian formal educational system there
are not many tried and tested procedures to assess listening and speaking. This Unit
suggests a few possible ways which will help the teacher to evaluate these skills. We
have provided you with detailed inventories which you could adopt to suit your
context and type of students. Always remember, any assessment must be sensitive
to your students and must not add to their anxiety.

5.7 SUGGESTED READING

Boyd ,G. A. (1970). Teaching Communication Skills in the Elementary Schools.
UK: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.
Klippel, F.(1984). Keep Talking: Communicative Fluency Activities for
Language Teaching.Cambridge: CUP.
Littlewood, W. (1991). Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction.
Cambridge: CUP.
Maley, A. & Moulding, S.(1982). Learning to Listen: Tasks for Developing
Listening Skills. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
O’ Sullivan, B.(2008). Notes on Speaking. www.lrc.cornell.edu/events/past/2008-
2009

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Listening Comprehension Penny, Ur. (1984). Teaching Listening Comprehension Cambridge: Cambridge
and Speaking
University Press.
Underwood, M. (1989).Teaching Listening. London: Longman.

5.8 ANSWERS
Check Your Progress 1
When preparing listening tasks for assessment which sometimes resemble reading
comprehension tests some important elements to be kept in mind are:
The listening stimuli: This should represent typical oral language and not the written
language read out to learners. The language should resemble language heard in the
classroom in various media or in conversations. These should be interesting and
short, they should relate to learners’ experiences and should not be coloured by
gender, socioeconomic or racial ethnic background.
The questions: Multiple choice questions are preferred; these should focus on
important aspects of the passage and not on trivial details. Answers must relate to
the passage and not be based on the learners’ prior knowledge.
Performance tests are also acceptable where the learner selects a picture or performs
a task based on oral instruction. Learners may have to select a picture after listening
to the description. They could be given a map and asked to trace a route.
The test environment: The environment should be free of external distractions. If
a voice recorder is used it should be of good sound quality. If the test administrator
is presenting material it should be presented clearly and with appropriate volume.
Authentic materials: It is good to use authentic materials like radio and television
programmes ,public address announcements, speeches and lectures, telephone
recordings, movie recordings etc.
Check Your Progress 2
Designing listening tasks involve three stages:
Pre listening: when planning for the task decide:
 what to listen for
 if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
 whether to address the overall meaning or only words and phrases.
While listening tasks: When monitoring comprehension
 verify predictions
 decide what is important and what is not
 listen again to check
 ask for help
After listening: Assessing comprehension and strategy
 assess understanding of a particular area
 assess overall progress
86
 decide if the appropriate strategies have been used Assessing Listening
and Speaking
 modify strategies if so needed.
Check Your Progress 3
1) When designing pre listening activities keep in mind :
 Learner’s background knowledge
 Clarify any cultural information needed to understand the task
 Create an awareness about the text the learners are about to hear and the
purpose of listening
 Provide for group discussion as a background.
2) While listening tasks relate directly to the text and learners attempt them during
or immediately after listening. We need to remember:
 Allow learners to read the instructions before attempting the task
 Keep writing to a minimum while listening
 They should be guided through the task
 Use questions to help learners focus
Check Your Progress 4
Some of the listening problems found in learners are:
1. Acuity of hearing
Some learners have physical problems which prevent them from listening effectively.
2. Discrimination and auditory perception
Some learners have problems with auditory memory (recalling what they have just
heard) and sequential memory (recalling the correct sequences of words or
utterances they have just heard).
3. Attention and concentration
Many learners have difficulty in following instruction because of a low attention span
and an inability to concentrate for more than very short intervals.
4. Comprehension
Many learners have difficulties with different aspects of listening comprehension.
Some have trouble with factual or literal comprehension (identifying what was said
or what facts were stated); others have trouble with interpretation such as being
able to see cause and effect relationships between facts.
Check Your Progress 5
1. Speaking tests have to be planned carefully keeping in mind numbers as they
are tests that have to be conducted at a personal level. In case there is pair
work/group work involved, it is important to plan the total time to be taken,
ensure attendance and also levels of proficiency. This could mean really long
hours of work for the examiner if the numbers are large.

87
Listening Comprehension 2. It is necessary in any speaking test to clearly define the test taker. Teacher must
and Speaking
take into account:
 Expected linguistic output
 Age appropriate task
 Background of the test taker in terms of exposure to the language outside
the classroom.
 Long term disabilities like speaking, hearing ,vision etc.
 Cognitive style. This refers to the way an individual perceives information.
Some test takers may not be able to interpret a graph so if the task is
related to answering questions based on the graph the candidate may not
be able to do so .
 Motivation, concentration, emotional state, test preparedness
3 When reviewing a test these are some of the criteria that should be kept in
mind.
 Purpose. What is the strategy the task is looking at?
 Information. What is the information expected from the speaker? The
nature of the information expected is important . If it is too abstract, it may
not be as forthcoming as information that is more concrete.
 Response format . What is the expected format of the response?
 Criteria for assessment . Is the candidate aware of the criteria for
assessment?
 Time constraints. Is the time clearly specified?
 Examiner and speaker relationship is very important as it sets the tone of
the test.
 Topic familiarity leads to superior performance.

88