Testing Listening Comprehension in the Context of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

Abstract

This article discusses issues related to the testing of listening comprehension in the context of the 1986 ACTFL proficiency guidelines (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 1987). After a review of current research on listening comprehension and development of listening tests, four issues are singled out for more detailed consideration: the meaning of context in listening testing, the concept of criterion-referenced tests, the notion of specific purposes in testing, and the use of technology in listening tests. A number of research issues are also discussed.Although a great deal of research has been conducted recently on the listening skill, and although its central place in initial second language learning and influence on the development of the other language skills have become better understood, listening comprehension testing has been, and remains, somewhat the quiet corner in the testing field. A number of researchers have provided insights into the complexity of the active listening skill: Richards (1983) considers message and medium factors to arrive at a list of 33 micro-skjlls required for conversational listening and a list of 18 micro-skills relevant to academic listening. Chaudron and Richards (1986) show that macro-markers (those that highlight information in a lecture and its sequencing or importance) are more important to comprehension than are micro-markers (which indicate links between sentences in the lecture). Glisan (1985) provides evidence for the importance of first-and second-language word order in the comprehension of key sentences in texts. Dunkel This is a revised version of an article, with the same title, that has appeared in Valdman (1987).

Running on Air

“…As radio historian Susan J. Douglas has argued, through preserved archival footage we tend to look upon the global conflict as a 'visual war', when, in fact, it was first and foremost 'a radio war that millions listened to and imagined'. 7 Drawing on radio broadcasts and newspaper articles, this article addresses the impact of radio on modern sport by detailing the radio broadcasts of middle-distance running and their impact on the fame of Swedish sport star Gunder Hägg. Since a large number of preserved recordings of athletics events from this era are not available in the public audio-visual archives of the National Library of Sweden, digitised versions have been retrieved from the private archives of Sveriges Radio, the national, publicly funded radio broadcasting corporation in Sweden.…”

“…According to Susan J. Douglas, the 'geometric' sport of baseball-with the angles and parables of each hit and the movement of players from base to base-was wellsuited for radio, bringing the geometry of the field to life in the imagination of the listener. 40 Something similar, but also less complex in terms of geometry, can be said of middle-distance running.…”

Distributions of Actfl Ratings by Toefl Score Ranges

“…We attempted this development because the descriptors would be interpreted by those without specific training. Also, a number of criticisms of the ACTFL ratings have appeared (Bachman and Savignon, 1986;Lantolf and Frawley, 1985;Savignon 1985;Lantolf and Frawley 1988;Bachman 1988;Douglas 1988). It should be noted that many of these comments are given in the context of speaking rather than listening, writing, and reading that are of concern here, and they are based on logic rather than empirical data.…”

The Discourse of Accommodation in Oral Proficiency Interviews

“…When interviewees are judged early in the interview to be candidates for a rating of 2 or 2 + , interviewers may then find it difficult to apply ACTFL/ETS guidelines (the conventional model of proficiency) with enough precision to support their rating task. Problems reported in the literature related to the descriptive adequacy of the guidelines (Douglas, 1988;Lantolf & Frawley, 1985) may be magnified as interviewers employ interviewing strategies that may not exhaustively sample performance beyond the current level. If the interviewers find there is no practical guide available with which to navigate in the middle range, a more familiar accommodative strategy developed from experiences outside of the interview setting might be drawn into the operation of the probe to substitute for the conventional criteria.…”