Understanding listening assessment in a Colombian EFL context

Abstract

Even though listening research has come to the fore; from the cognitive, affective, and behavioral perspectives, there is still a lack of understanding of what indeed happens when assessing listening inside the classroom. Examining how listening is assessed and the influence of said practices on learners could be beneficial for the academic community. In this study, I aimed at analyzing the characteristics of the listening assessment used in B1 level classes at a private language institution. To do so, a total of fourteen tasks were analyzed. These tasks come from six tests, from the course curriculum testing package (CCTP) and from an external testing package (ETP). Three aspects were identified: the type of knowledge targeted in each listening task, the forms of listening assessment and the type of communicative listening activities students, as listeners, are exposed to in each test from the CCTP and the ETP. The findings indicate: a) CCTP and ETP assess different types of listening knowledge, b) the most recurrent type of knowledge assessed in the CCTP is the phonological knowledge while ETP focused on integrating not only the phonological but also the lexical, pragmatic and general knowledge, c) there is a lack of variety in the forms of listening assessment used in CCTP: 80% of the listening tasks in the tests are dictation tasks in audio media and recordings assessing mostly phonological knowledge. This study concluded that the inclusion of an external examination to the course curriculum examination does not seem to align to the holistic view of listening development proposed by the course curriculum. The results could inform curricular alignment and listening assessment literacy decisions for EFL teachers in the institution.