Abstract
This study addressed a need to examine and improve current assessments of listening comprehension (LC) of university EFL learners. These assessments adopted a traditional approach where test-takers listened to an audio recording of a spoken interaction and then independently responded to a set of questions. This static approach to assessment is at odds with the way teaching listening was carried out in the classroom, where LC tasks often involved some scaffolding. To address this limitation, a dynamic assessment (DA) of a listening test was proposed and investigated. DA involves mediation and meaning negotiation when responding to LC tasks and items. This paper described: (a) the local assessment context, (b) the relevance of DA in this context, and (c) the findings of an empirical study that examined the new and current LC assessments. Sixty Tunisian EFL students responded to a LC test with two parts, static and dynamic. The tests were scored by 11 raters. Both the test-takers and raters were interviewed about their views of the two assessments. Score analyses, using the Multi-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) (FACETS program, version, 3.61.0), indicated that test-taker ability, rater behavior and item difficulty estimates varied across test types. Qualitative data analysis indicated that although the new assessment provided better insights into learners' cognitive and meta-cognitive processes than did the traditional assessment, raters were doubtful about the value of and processes involved in DA mainly because they were unfamiliar with it. The paper discussed the findings and their implications for listening assessment practices in this context and for theory and research on listening assessment.
Highlights
The purpose of this study addressed a need to examine and improve current assessments of listening at the tertiary level
The second part reports the bias interaction of a) rater by test type, b) rater by test-taker and c) test-taker by test type. All these patterns were compared in both parts of the test to account for the sources of variability among the different facets
Test-taker ability and item difficulty To probe into the nature of the test-taker ability and item difficulty, the following question was addressed: a
Summary
The purpose of this study addressed a need to examine and improve current assessments of listening at the tertiary level. Two listening tests, dynamic and static, were examined and assessed. Static LC tests have been used in language research and assessment. This type of listening seems to be at odds with the way teaching listening is carried out in class in which learners are supposed to be engaged in joint activities to comprehend listening. In static or traditional LC tests, there is no interest allocated to the joint interactions of the learners required for approaching the learning input (Leung 2007; Lidz & Gindis 2003)
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