Reviews of Academic English Listening Tests for Non-Native Speakers

This article presents a review of 20 tests designed for assessing the academic English listening skill of second or foreign language learners. The available test information has been systematically condensed in purpose, listening construct, task characteristics, and validity evidence. It was found that most of the tests were developed for proficiency and placement purposes in academic contexts, with few of the tests serving for making workplace decisions. Also, global, local, and inferential skills constitute the construct in most listening comprehension tests. A practical approach for justifying the uses of these tests for different stakeholders is discussed. This review is a valuable resource for educators, administrators, test developers, and researchers looking for a comprehensive analysis of existing English tests that assess listening comprehension in second or foreign language learners.     

A Task-based Language Teaching Approach to Developing Metacognitive Strategies for Listening Comprehension

In second (L2) or foreign language (FL) learning, learning strategies help learners perform tasks, solve specific problems, and compensate for learning deficits. Of the strategy types, metacognitive strategies manage and regulate the construction of L2 or FL knowledge. Although learning strategies are frequently taught via teacher demonstration, an alternative but underresearched approach is through embedded instruction in tasks. To develop strategy awareness in language learning, the present study aimed to investigate how well a task-based teaching framework was able to develop intermediate Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students’ metacognitive awareness of listening comprehension. Eighty-eight sophomores participated in the study, which used a quasi-experimental design. The experimental group received strategy-embedded task-based listening instruction for 18 weeks, whereas the control group received only strategy-based instruction. Listening tests and questionnaires were used in the pretest and posttest stages. The results showed that the experimental group improved their metacognitive awareness of strategies for listening and outperformed the control group in the listening test. The students in the experimental group considered tasks to be an important medium of input enhancement for improving listening ability.     

Psychometric Evaluation and Discussions of English Language Learners’ Listening Comprehension

The importance of listening in the context of English language acquisition is gaining acceptance, but its unique attributes in language performance, while substantively and qualitatively justifiable, are generally not psychometrically defined. This article psychometrically supports listening as a distinct domain among the three other domains of language learning—reading, writing, and speaking—through the analysis of listening data from a large-scale K-12 English language proficiency assessment. Student responses in this study were compared on the basis of cognitive, metacognitive, and other learning strategies between high achieving and low achieving listening groups that were formed using a latent mixture distribution model. Latent mixture distribution and differential items functioning analyses together with classical item analysis were used to substantiate or draw attention to literature findings. The article also highlights the importance of social-interactive items that are inadvertently embedded in an assessment that is primarily created to measure academic language.     

Perception of Emotion: Measuring Decoding Accuracy of Adult Prosodic Cues Varying in Intensity

The purpose of the present study was to present a measure of the ability to decode emotion in the voices of adults. After describing the process of how the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy—Adult Prosody (DANVA2-AP) test was constructed, five propositions were developed to guide the gathering of appropriate construct validity evidence for the measure. Evidence from a series of studies provided support for all of the propositions. It was concluded that the DANVA2-AP had satisfactorily met the minimal requirements for construct validity.     

Fostering and Assessing Critical Listening Skills in the Speech Course

In this article we present the results of two listening assessments conducted in spring 2013 and fall 2013. Our primary goal is of a pedagogical nature and is concerned with the design and the testing of a tool that could measure students’ critical listening skill improvement during the span of a semester. A total of N = 370 students participated in two quasi-experimental studies in which we developed a program to foster and measure critical listening skills. Results show that students’ listening skills improved in specific aspects of critical listening at both times. Effects were larger in the second round due to adjustments to both the course curriculum and the assessment tool. Results support the impact of the intervention by modest to high effect sizes and the construct validity of the assessment tool. We consider the improvement that was found in the current study an important beginning and recommend that the practice of listening skills becomes an integral part of the curriculum at the undergraduate level.     

Listening Assessment: The Watson-Barker Listening Test

This article discusses the need for valid and reliable measures of listening behavior and how the Watson-Barker Listening Test was developed to measure the listening abilities of adults and mature college students. Sections of the article describe the nature and forms of the test, various validation procedures and research studies using the test. The claims of validity are partially supported by the data, and the Watson-Barker Listening Test has gained wide acceptance.     

任务型教学的理论阐述及课堂实际运用——以《老友记》为素材的课堂详细教学计划（英文）

Task-based language teaching approach is beneficial for learners to apply language efficiently to authentic life settings. The vital distinction of this lesson plan is the authentic video used as the listening input resource. It is two extracts of one of the episodes from a classic and famous American TV series named ‘Friends'. The reasons for choosing each different stage will be presented and the detail of the activities applied in these stages will be fully explained. Furthermore, both strengths and weaknesses of the design will be further discussed in the evaluation section. Some suggestions will also be proposed in order to overcome the weaknesses of the design.     

Linguistic Capital and Academic Achievement of Canadian- and Foreign-Born University Students

Au Canada, plusieurs universités prennent des mesures pour recruter des immigrants ou leurs enfants et satisfaire leurs besoins—et parmi eux plusieurs ont l'anglais comme langue seconde. Il n'y a pas de recherches au Canada qui comparent la progression potentielle du capital linguistique des étudiants ayant l'anglais comme langue seconde et celui des autres étudiants au fil de leur parcours universitaire, avec les relations entre les progressions du capital linguistique et de l'acquisition des connaissances. L'auteur montre dans cette étude que, contrairement aux étudiants canadiens et ceux nés à l'étranger pour lesquels l'anglais est la première langue, le capital linguistique des étudiants nés à l'étranger dont l'anglais est une langue seconde s'accroît au cours des quatre années d'études universitaires. Cependant, cette augmentation du capital linguistique ne correspond pas à une augmentation de l'acquisition des connaissances.
In Canada, many universities are taking steps to recruit and meet the needs of immigrants and/or their sons and daughters, many of whom have English as a second language (ESL). There is, however, no research in Canada comparing potential increases in the linguistic capital of ESL and other students over the course of their university careers and the connection between increases in linguistic capital and academic achievement. In this study, it is shown that in contrast to Canadian- and foreign-born students for whom English is a first language, and Canadian-born ESL students, the linguistic capital of foreign-born ESL students increases over 4 years of university study; however, this increase in linguistic capital is not paralleled by an increase in academic achievement.     

The Effect of Activating Metacognitive Strategies on the Listening Performance and Metacognitive Awareness of EFL Students

This study investigates the effect of activating metacognitive strategies on the listening performance of English as a foreign language (EFL) university students and explores the impact of such strategies on their metacognitive awareness of the listening task. The participants were N = 50 students of English literature at the state university of Qom, Iran. After screening the participants from among 60 students, they were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group (n = 25) received the metacognitive strategy instruction based on the models proposed by Vandergrift and Tafaghodtari (2010), while the control group (n = 25) received just the listening input with no strategy instruction. The listening module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was utilized to evaluate the listening performance of the participants in both groups in pretests and posttests, and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) instrument was applied to measure the metacognitive awareness of the treatment group before and after the treatment. The results of the IELTS test revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the posttest and according to the analysis of the MALQ instrument there was a significant improvement in the students’ level of metacognitive awareness after strategy instruction. The interview results in the discussion section also supported the findings and shed more light on the details.     

Bivariate and Multivariate Associations between Trait Listening Goals and Trait Communicator Preferences

This article provides validity evidence for a measure of listening goals by showing theoretically consistent relationships with an existing communication preference questionnaire. Participants (N = 257) were administered trait measures for listening goals and communicator preferences. The four listening goals—relational, task-oriented, analytical, and critical—are related to seven communicator preferences: interpersonal, intrapersonal, auditory, visual-spatial, kinesthetic, linguistic, and logical. These results are supportive of hypotheses, although there were some contradictory findings and some findings were not hypothesized. Results of multivariate correlation estimates portray a listening profile centered on relational goals and interpersonal communicator preferences. Although acknowledging several limitations, results offer theoretical and practical guidance for future work, specifically how this information may be of help to individuals, couples, and counselors in utilizing relational goals and making more careful communicative choices.     

Examining the Role of Concentration,Vocabulary and Self-concept in Listening and Reading Comprehension

Listening is regarded as a key requirement for successful communication and is fundamentally linked to other language skills. Unlike reading, it requires both hearing and processing information in real-time. We therefore propose that the ability to concentrate is a strong predictor of listening comprehension. Using structural equation modeling, concentration was found to be a strong predictor of listening comprehension in a sample of 345 sixth graders in Switzerland. In contrast, the ability to concentrate did not predict successful reading comprehension. The most important predictor of both listening and reading comprehension was vocabulary.     

State of the Context: Listening in Education

Educational listening research in the last 80 years covers a broad spectrum. Early research investigated the amount of time spent listening. Later studies identified students' comprehension of oral material. Aspects most often researched fall into the following categories: listening elicitation, listening benefits, and listening instruction. Because instructors must meet the needs of a variety of student listening and learning styles, a significant amount of listening research investigates listening and learning preferences. This research emphasizes the need to identify successful teaching strategies to help teachers elicit effective listening. Teachers have long believed that students who listen better are better students, and research seems to corroborate that effective listeners achieve academic success. Few schools offer listening instruction, and even in courses where listening is supposedly emphasized, only 7% of the time is devoted to listening. The impact of listening instruction is ambiguous despite anecdotal evidence suggesting that instruction improves listening. Listening instruction is especially scarce in primary and secondary schools notwithstanding the fact that listening is linked to both literacy and academic success. Further, little research has occurred in K–12 classrooms where there is greater opportunity to learn more about effective listening if researchers take the time to do so.     

Measuring the willingness to foster children with emotional and behavioral problems

Many children in foster care have emotional or behavioral problems or are at risk for these problems. It is important to identify parents willing to foster children with these problems in order to ensure placement, care, stability and well-being of such children. This study presents a new 40-item self-report measure of the willingness of parents to foster children with emotional and behavioral problems, and two 20-item parallel forms of this measure. In addition, this study presents evidence of reliability and validity of scores derived from these measures with a national sample of 297 foster mothers. Coefficient alpha for these measures was .92 or greater, indicating excellent internal consistency reliability. Scores from these measures were unrelated to demographic characteristics, providing evidence of discriminant validity. In addition, scores from these measures were higher for foster mothers licensed to provide treatment foster care than for mothers only licensed to provide regular foster care, providing support for known groups validity. Finally, support for construct validity is provided by the fact that foster mothers with higher scores on these measures had fostered longer, were fostering more children at the time of this study, and had fewer children removed from their home at their request.     

A New Test to Measure Emotion Recognition Ability: Matsumoto and Ekman's Japanese and Caucasian Brief Affect Recognition Test (JACBART)

In this article, we report the development of a new test designed to measure individual differences in emotion recognition ability (ERA), five studies examining the reliability and validity of the scores produced using this test, and the first evidence for a correlation between ERA measured by a standardized test and personality. Utilizing Matsumoto and Ekman's (1988) Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion (JACFEE) and Neutral Faces (JACNeuF), we call this measure the Japanese and Caucasian Brief Affect Recognition Test (JACBART). The JACBART improves on previous measures of ERA by (1) using expressions that have substantial validity and reliability data associated with them, (2) including posers of two visibly different races (3) balanced across seven universal emotions (4) with equal distribution of poser race and sex across emotions (5) in a format that eliminates afterimages associated with fast exposures. Scores derived using the JACBART are reliable, and three studies demonstrated a correlation between ERA and the personality constructs of Openness and Conscientiousness, while one study reports a correlation with Extraversion and Neuroticism.     

Indo-China: Storm Center of Southeast Asia

The authors report the findings of a survey study in which they investigated high school social studies teachers' current practices, challenges, and needs in relation to instruction of English language learners (ELLs). Thirty-three high school social studies teachers in six English as a second language (ESL)-centered schools in central Virginia participated in the study. Drawing on the findings, three themes demand particular attention: the challenges that social studies teachers face teaching ELLs; the accommodations teachers currently make for ELLs; and the types of support teachers need to teach ELLs social studies more effectively. The authors include findings from the field of second-language education to raise social studies teachers' consciousness about their ELLs' needs and conclude with a number of practical suggestions related to instruction and differentiation that are crucial for social studies teachers to help ELLs learn effectively. Further dialogues are needed, particularly regarding ESL inclusion and teachers' critical awareness of serving this particular group of students.     

Individual differences in the nonverbal communication of affect: The diagnostic analysis of nonverbal accuracy scale

The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA) was designed to measure individual differences in the accurate sending and receiving of nonverbal social information. The DANVA consists of four receptive and three expressive subtests that measure nonverbal processing accuracy in children from 6 to 10 years of age. Four propositions were offered to guide the gathering of construct validity data for the DANVA. In support of the propositions, researchers found that DANVA accuracy scores increased with age, were internally consistent and reliable over time, and snowed significant relationships with indices of personal and social adjustment and academic achievement but were not related to IQ. Evidence for construct validity was stronger for receptive, as compared to expressive, subtests. Future research should include additional populations of subjects and study of the impact of intensity of emotion being sent or received.     

A Measure of the Ability to Identify Emotion in Children's Tone of Voice

This paper introduces a test of the ability to decode emotion of varying intensity in the voices of children. Construction of the measure, the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Child Paralanguage (DANVA2-CP), is described. An initial study using elementary-school-aged children found that accuracy scores increased with age, were internally consistent, and were correlated, as expected, with indices of personality and social competence. Data from 20 additional studies, using participants from across the age range, provided further evidence of construct validity for the DANVA2-CP. Based on the results, it was concluded that the DANVA2-CP may be an appropriate measure of the ability to identify emotion in children's paralinguistic presentations.     

Phonotactic Constraints on Infant Word Learning

How do infants use their knowledge of native language sound patterns when learning words? There is ample evidence of infants’ precocious acquisition of native language sound structure during the first year of life, but much less evidence concerning how they apply this knowledge to the task of associating sounds with meanings in word learning. To address this question, 18‐month‐olds were presented with two phonotactically legal object labels (containing sound sequences that occur frequently in English) or two phonotactically illegal object labels (containing sound sequences that never occur in English), paired with novel objects. Infants were then tested using a looking‐while‐listening measure. The results revealed that infants looked at the correct objects after hearing the legal labels, but not the illegal labels. Furthermore, vocabulary size was related to performance. Infants with larger receptive vocabularies displayed greater differences between learning of legal and illegal labels than infants with smaller vocabularies. These findings provide evidence that infants’ knowledge of native language sound patterns influences their word learning.     

Experimental Study on the Effect of Listening Strategies among Freshmen in SWUFE

Conscious listening strategies cultivation is believed to be contributive to enhance learners' listening ability. This paper aims to research the effect of these listening strategies by conducting an experimental study among freshmen in SWUFE. The final result shows that having a good control of listening strategies do have a positive effect on improving the listening comprehension capacity of the experimental subjects.