What do tests of listening comprehension test

The students can get the main idea via the visual support. I then play the clip again and give them some short-answer questions. Most of them can get the keywords for each question. Interview Q3; public school teacher 01; translation. The English listening textbook adopts the different text types, such as chronological order, compare and contrast, or process.

I design the worksheet for my students and ask them to provide answers. Interview Q3; public school teacher 14; translation. The teachers who did not teach English listening in class from both types of school gave a number of similar reasons.

One main reason for the public school teachers was that they did not have additional class hours for listening training. Other reasons included the belief that students could learn by themselves by practicing listening after school and their tendency to focus on teaching the test content of the GSAT, namely, reading comprehension, grammar, and translation. Owing to the strict ability grouping system in the private schools, the teachers from these said that they had spent a large amount of time on training basic grammatical knowledge and reading skills to students with lower English proficiency, and that this had left no time for listening instruction.

In addition to teaching in class, the private schools concerned had made more changes to encourage their students to practice listening after the implementation of the TELC. The changes included additional English listening and speaking courses, using an on-line English listening test system, using supplementary on-line audio-visual listening materials, and having a regular weekly English listening quiz.

The public schools, by contrast, had offered just a weekly one-hour, optional English class taught by native speakers NS of English, where the students as a class unit requested it, but the teaching content was not always about listening.

English listening quizzes were given to public school students as well, but irregularly. The three excerpts illustrate the differences in changes made by private and public schools.

Also, our school has bought a large on-line English listening test bank and the computerised equipment for our students to use it.

Interview Q4; private school teacher 10; translation. We hire native NSs of English to teach English one hour every week for the students enrolled in the special program, particularly English and math.

It could be speaking or reading; it depends on the English proficiency of the whole class and their learning needs. Interview Q4; public school teacher 17; translation. Finally, though more public school teachers agreed that communicative competence needed to be emphasised in secondary English education and there was a significant difference between the two groups, the teachers from both types of school reported several and similar obstacles that limited the freedom of adopting a communicative approach in English classes.

You know our GSAT is more grammar-translation oriented. Some students participated actively in the discussion, but a few good students may not be willing to share scores in the speaking activities with other students, since they want to save high scores for future university application.

Interview Q5; public school teacher 04; translation. Actually we do have teachers asking students to give English oral presentations and to engage the whole class in discussion. Interview Q5; public school teacher 05; translation.

I am for the communicative approach, but I prefer to communicate with students individually and face-to-face. This is the reality for private schools. If you use activities that are not directly related to the test and the activities are scored in class, parents will question us. This is a hindrance. Interview Q5; private school teacher 09; translation. To summarise, the implementation of the new English listening test has had both negative and positive impacts on the teachers and their teaching.

As a result, this new test has brought unintended, but predictable, negative effects on teaching, in the sense that frequent practice of listening test items and drilling on grammar and translation were the main instructional practices with respect to listening in English classes. Moreover, both the public and private school teachers were under pressure from parents, students, and school expectations of helping students achieve high academic scores in English tests.

The different recruitment systems and ability grouping policies in the two types of school influenced how teachers taught English listening and what resources the school authorities were capable of offering. The results showed that the newly-introduced TELC has impacted on English teachers and their teaching approaches in senior high schools in Taiwan to a fairly marked degree.

Though nearly all teachers agreed that the implementation of the TELC matched the senior high school English curriculum and teaching objectives, not all teachers modified their teaching approaches. The teachers who responded to the TELC positively incorporated listening as well as speaking activities in class, adopting either comprehension or interactive approaches, while remaining with their existing grammar-translation methods for the preparation of the GSAT and AST.

Field , and Graham et al. Although the comprehension approach provides listeners with experiences and massive exposure to the target language, pre-set multiple-choice questions restrict the information that listeners are allowed to respond to and undermine the authenticity of language use in real-life situations Field Instead of asking students to answer pre-determined questions with restricted answers, Rost indicates that teachers can encourage second or foreign language learners to give informational facts, express opinions or viewpoints based on what was heard.

Furthermore, these traditional, large-scale multiple-choice tests are perceived as having had negative influences on the quality of teaching and learning Cheng and Curtis ; Hughes ; Madaus and Kellaghan In the current study, several teachers had involved a certain degree of oral interaction by asking the students to express their opinions, or to give feedback towards issues raised in the listening extracts.

Specifically, Flowerdew and Miller recommend that communicative, task-based, or integrated approaches encompassing problem-solving tasks serve practical techniques for eliciting speaking performance. An integration of the comprehension approach and oral production that offers students opportunities to share the outcomes of listening is thus suggested.

In the present study, though the majority of them agreed that communicative competence needed to be reinforced in senior high school English classes and some teachers had introduced interactive activities, the frequency of the listening and speaking teaching was limited for the public school teachers. In the present case, the public school students with better English abilities, or who were in the special programs, were more likely to receive more teaching resources, such as English courses taught by NS of English, than their ordinary peers.

Similarly, the teachers would be able to spend more time on teaching listening. Both teachers from public and private schools expressed a need for systematic, in-service training courses in listening instruction. As Shulman indicated several decades ago, teacher knowledge is constituted by pedagogic, content, and pedagogic content knowledge.

Nonetheless, Johnson , p. In the present case, while the teachers have expressed a need for in-service training courses in listening instruction, they may need to incorporate their personal experiences into the received pedagogic knowledge, then practice, examine, and reflect on it to achieve more positive washback effects.

The findings of the present study revealed that the new English listening test had both positive impacts the instructional practices reflected the intended purpose of the test policy and negative ones heavy emphases on test practice and drilling of grammar on the teachers from both types of school. Owing to the competitive teaching environment of private schools and pressure from other stakeholders, the private school teachers were found to focus more on the teaching of test-taking skills, and authorities have purchased expensive equipment and test banks, or have opened listening and speaking courses to help their students.

The public school teachers, by contrast, tended to use multimedia more often and design more interactive activities that engaged students in oral discussion and presentation.

Due to the fixed time allotment, courses taught by NS of English were offered mainly to the students enrolled in special programs. The present study has yielded findings that have both theoretical and pedagogical implications, but it was not without limitations.

First, the generalisation of the results to other populations with different test policies in other countries or teachers with different school environments may be limited.

Another constraint was that this study was based on semi-structured interviews. Further studies using other research methods, such as questionnaires, observation, or analysis of textbooks could be carried out to explore more about washback effects in Taiwanese educational system. While the present study focused on foreign language teacher knowledge and engagement, perhaps future research could explore outcomes of teacher education activities or program designs.

Washback effect is a complicated issue and tends to have a more considerable impact on teachers than students Spratt ; Watanabe In an ideal situation, Spratt ibid. To produce a positive backwash effect on teaching and learning in the long run, teachers need first to strengthen their pedagogic content knowledge of listening instruction, and then to integrate the result into current instructional practice, while weighing the impact of the pressure from other stakeholders.

It is recommended that a systematic in-service training course of English listening instruction should be offered to all senior high school English teachers. To conclude, since the high-stake national examinations will continue to exist, the teachers need to strike a balance between the impact of the new test policy, content knowledge needed for the new instructional practice for students with different English proficiency, and the autonomy allowed to implement it.

Alderson, C. Language Testing, 13 3 , — Article Google Scholar. Alderson, J. Does washback exist? Applied Linguistics, 14 2 , — Andrews, S. Assessing spoken English in public examinations — Why and how? Falvey Eds. Google Scholar. Bell, J. Doing your research project 5th ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Boardman, A. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20 6 , — Chen, J.

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How does washback influence teaching? Implications for Hong Kong. Language and Education, 11 1 , 38— Subtest C: Reasoning - This subtest taps into higher-level cognitive skills.

The student infers answers from information presented verbally. Subtest D: Vocabulary - The student gives a one-word synonym or a descriptive definition for a word heard in a passage.

Subtest E: Understanding Messages - The student listens to a short message and answers two questions about it. All Rights Reserved. You know how the city's been doing a lot of work to fix up Main Street — you know, to make it look nicer? Well, they're going to create a mural. Boy : You mean, like, make a painting on the entire wall of a building? Girl : It's that big wall on the side of the public library.

And students from this school are going to do the whole thing I wish I could be a part of it, but I'm too busy. Boy : [excitedly] Cool! I'd love to help design a mural.

Imagine everyone in town walking past that wall and seeing my artwork, every day. Girl : I thought you'd be interested. They want the mural to be about nature, so I guess all the design ideas students come up with should have a nature theme.

Boy : That makes sense — they've been planting so many trees and plants along the streets and in the park. Boy : [half listening, daydreaming] This could be so much fun. Maybe I'll try to visit the zoo this weekend Girl : [with humor] Well maybe you should go to the art room first to get more information from Mr. Boy : [slightly sheepishly] Oh yeah. Good idea. Thanks for letting me know, Lisa!

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