Receptive Skills
Receptive Skills
Receptive Skills
Haifa F.Dermish
Submitted to
March 2022
TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the receptive skills (reading and listening ) first ,it gives a
definitions of both skills , types of listening and reading beside examples of how to make
effective listening and reading tasks which are vital processes essential to enable you to speak
and communicate in real life and in classroom .
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Table of Contents
Preliminaries…………………………………………………………..…………….ii
Chapter I page
Introduction …………………………………………………….…………………..4
The Nature of Reading ……………………………………… …..………………….5
Testing Reading ……………………………………………………..……………….5
Types of Reading ………………………………………….……………….…………6
Micro and Macro skills for reading Comprehension………………..………..……….8.
Assessing Levels of Reading Comprehension ……………….……………………10
Scoring Reading Tests …………………………………………………………..……11
What is Listening …………………………………………...…………………..……..12
Testing Listening …………………………………………….…..…………………….12
Why Test Listening …………………………………….………………..…………….13
Listening Skill Activities…………………………………………….…..……………..13
What makes Listening Difficult …………………………………….…………………….13
Setting the Listening Task…………………………………………………………..…….14
The Importance of Listening ………………………………………….………………….14
Types of Listening ………………………………………………………..………………15
Designing Assessment Task : Intensive Listening ………………………………….……..16
Designing Assessment Task : Responsive Listening ………………………………………16
Designing Assessment Task : Selective Listening ………………………………..………17
Designing Assessments Task : Extensive Listening ………………………………………19
II Conclusion …………………………………….
References
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Chapter I
Introduction
English language learners can be assessed in both receptive skills (including listening and
reading) and productive skills (including speaking and writing). Typically, the communicative
skills of speaking and listening comprehension are developed at a faster pace than the more
academic skills of reading and writing. Comprehension is such an internal process that listening
comprehension and reading comprehension are much more difficult to assess than other areas. In
this segment, you will find suggestions for assessing both receptive and productive skills.
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
Reading is one feature of language that requires complex cognitive abilities. Reading
comprehension refers to the ability of understanding a written text in order to grasp the ideas
intended. It is a tool to interpret the writer's aims by the reader's conceptualization. (Arung,
2015)
Testing Reading
Testing the reading skill appears to be an easy task at the first glance but, in fact, it is
The processes underlying reading practice cannot be observed in the same way we observe
Tests should be constructed in a way that allows test takers to apply the reading skills
successfully.
Testers need to identify the reading skills they wish to measure, and provide the test items that
Types of Reading
Urquhart and Weir argue that research on L1 and L2 reading in the past tend to concentrate
on careful reading at the local level, and to some extent has ignored expeditious and careful
reading at the global level, that is the ongoing meaning representation and text representation
level (Carver, 1997; Perfetti, 1999; Enright, Grabe, Mosenthall, Mulcahy-Ernt and Schedl, 2000;
Stanovich, 2000; Grabe and Stoller, 2002; Khalifa and Weir, 2009). Rosenfeld, Oltman and
Sheppard (2004) and Weir et al (2000) suggest that the types of reading demanded of
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
Urquhart and Weir (1998) provide a four-cell matrix to describe the differences between
careful and expeditious reading skills and strategies at the local and global levels.
This framework outlines the two main types of reading, namely, careful and expeditious reading
and the different categories they contain. The sub-divisions of reading assume that different
skills and strategies are employed by readers according to the different purposes of reading.
Different purposes of reading include search reading (reading to find information), reading for
basic comprehension, reading to learn, and reading to integrate information across multiple texts
(Enright et al, 2000). These purposes of reading should be taken into account when describing
reading ability comprehensively. This framework is supported by Grabe (2002) who claims that
to capture a complete picture of the reading process, reading should also be defined to include
purposes of reading, components of reading ability and the key processes in reading
comprehension.
Urquhart and Weir (1998) describe the different skills and strategies classified under
careful and expeditious reading below. Careful reading at the global level is generally associated
with reading to learn which involves reading material of the textbook variety. It is not a selective
process whereby the reader aims to read and grasp most of the information in the text and based
on the main points, builds a macrostructure. For careful reading at the local level, the strategies
Expeditious reading at the global level comprises skimming and search reading. Skimming
involves the reader to grasp the gist of the text, i.e. what the whole text is about. As the reading
process is selective, the reader builds a macrostructure with minimal information from the text.
Search reading on the other hand, is related to locating information based on predetermined
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
topics and the reader does not necessarily make an attempt to build a macrostructure of the whole
text.
Expeditious reading at the local level refers to scanning which involves selective reading.
This includes locating a specific date, word, phrase, figure, name, date of specific events or items
Well-constructed reading tests provide stable information about students' reading ability.
They help to measure learners' progress during the course through highlighting the strengths and
Tests are expected to build students’ independence in reading. They are also a good way
The results of such tests facilitate students' feedback. Consequently, teachers of reading will
offer appropriate texts that are suitable for the learners' needs. (Afflerbach, 2018)
According to Hughes (2003), there are some parameters that control the choice of the texts
Text Type: many types of texts can be selected according to the objectives of the test. For
etc.
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
Text Forms refer to the form in which the texts are written or designed, such as description,
Graphic Features: can contain charts, diagrams, cartoons, tables, illustrations, etc.
Topics: normally selected according to personal factors, like learners' interests and
background culture. Often, they are general and familiar topics. For instance, sports,
Style: refers to the degree of formality. Texts can be either formal or informal, depending
Intended readership: refers to the candidates who are taking the test and being exposed to
the reading passage. Identification of those candidates affects the test material. Readers
can be specified generally, like young native speakers', or accurately, like 'science
Length: reflects the number of words that a reading text includes. It is usually determined
by the level of the candidates, as well as the type of reading abilities being tested.
Readability: is a measure that predicts the difficulty of a passage. Very long texts can be difficult
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
4. Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance.
5. Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense,
7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in signaling the
1. Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their significance for
interpretation.
purpose.
4. From described events, ideas, etc., infer links and connections between events,
deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea,
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
Alderson (2000) presents the notion of skills sequence in understanding. Three levels of
Literal Reading
Read the lines: recall information stated directly and explicitly in the text.
• answers found directly in the text or by information readily available in outside sources
Inferential/Interpretive Reading
• inferential--answers to these questions may be implied rather than stated directly in the
reading
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
• reader must make inferences based on specific information they can cite to back up
their conclusions
• found by following patterns and seeing relationships among parts of the text
• require reading of the work AND consideration of what has been read
• summarize
Read behind and beyond the lines: evaluate information based on personal knowledge
and experiences.
• require the reader to think more abstractly and relate the text to real life
Objective items of a test, such as multiple choice, or true/ false tasks, are quite easy to
mark and calculate. In some tests, every item is assigned a mark of 1 if it is answered correctly,
and if wrong. Marks are added together in order to get a total for each subset or for the whole
test.
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
•Subjective items require subjective score ratings. It can be achieved either holistically “an
overall score”, or analytically “a rating score for each criterion”. (Alderson, Clapham & Wall,
1995)
What is Listening
Listening skills allow one to make sense of and understand what another person is saying. In
other words, listening skills allow people to understand what someone is talking about-the
meaning behind the words. Among the four language skills , listening is the first skill that a
person learns. The process starts with the sounds that enter the ears. They are then processed by
our brains and become meaningful messages when interpreted. This is an important skill, as
Testing Listening
Testing listening involves a variety of skills, at the lowest level it involves discrimination
among sounds, discrimination among intonation and stress patterns, and comprehension of long
Assess how well a student has mastered what has been taught.
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
1) Narrating a story
6) Drawing a map
7) Dictation
What makes listening difficult in a second language? Of the two receptive language skills,
listening to a foreign language is understudied relative to reading (Johnston & Doughty, 2006;
Lund, 1991; Osada, 2004; Rubin, 1994; Shohamy & Inbar, 1991; Thompson, 1995). Most
research concerned with the evaluation of second language (L2) comprehension has focused on
reading rather than listening because the process of reading is more easily observed and
manipulated (Osada, 2004). That said, research findings regarding reading comprehension often
fail to map fully onto the processes involved in listening comprehension (Schmidt-Rinehart,
1994). For example, listeners have a worse memory for spoken information than readers do for
written information, with proportionally more details recalled by readers and proportionally more
main ideas by listeners (Lund, 1991). Further, characteristics of the listener influence listening
performance differently than they influence reading performance (Park, 2004). In addition, there
are factors that are important to listening that are not relevant for reading, like coping with a fast
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
speech rate and disfluencies. In short, it is important to recognize that listening is a distinct skill
from reading. Listening involves real-time processing, generally without the option of going
back to earlier sections of the passage the listener may have missed (Buck, 2001; Flowerdew,
1994). While slow readers can alter their reading speed without damaging comprehension, slow
listeners may well miss information that cannot be recovered. Once the information is lost, it can
be difficult to understand the rest of the passage (Buck, 2001). Further, while most reading
involves complete control of the rate at which text is received (i.e., readers may read a text
quickly or slowly, as they wish, unless some time constraint is applied), control over the speed of
delivery for listeners varies much more widely (Osada, 2004). In a conversation, listeners may be
able to exert some control over the speech rate of their interlocutor, while listening to a radio
program provides no opportunity for control over the speed of delivery, and attending a
professional lecture does so only with certain restrictions and considerable effort.
3-Scoring the listening test: In Receptive skill there is no need to deduct points for errors
in grammar or spelling
Listening has an important role both in daily life and in academic context as it is crucial for
people to sustain effective communication. Listening skills have been a great concern for both
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Richards’s (1983) list of microskills specifying objectives for learning and may be even
more useful in forcing test designers to carefully identify specific assessment objectives. In the
box below, the skills are subdivided into what we prefer to think of as microskills (attending to
the smaller bits and chunks of language, in more of a bottom-up process) and macroskills
(focusing on the larger elements involved in a top-down in the performance of listening compre-
is still useful in the domain of approach to a listening task), The micro- and macroskills provide
3 Selective : listening to a relatively short speech, a monologue for instance, for couple of
minutes in order to scan for specific information. The main purpose of such performance
is not to look for the general meaning but to have an understanding of specific
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TESTING RECEPTIVE SKILLS
selective listening could be done through asking student to look for names or numbers or
a certain fact.
grasp the overall meaning of it. Test takers in extensive listening might need to resolve to
interactive skills, for example they may ask a question, be part of the discussion or taking
notes.
B. Is he living ?
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Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do your homework?
B. About an hour.
C. About $10.
D. Yes, Idid
A third type of listening performance is selective listening, in which the test- taker listens
to a limited quantity of aural input and must discern some specific information within it. A
Listening Cloze
Listening cloze tasks require the test-taker to listen to a story, monologue or conversational
and simultaneously read the written in which selected words or phrases have been deleted.
Example:
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Test-takers hear an announcement from an airline agent and see the transcript with the
underline words deleted. “ Ladies and gentleman, I now have some connecting gate
information for those of you making connections to other flights out of San Fransisco.”
Flight seven-thirty to Portland will depart from gate seventythree at nine-thirty p.m.
Flight ten-forty-five to Reno will depart at nine-fifty p.m from gate seventeen. Flight
four-forty to Monterey will depart at nine-thirty-five p.m from gate sixty. And flight
Information Transfer
testtakers to focus on just the relevant information. The objective of this task is to
test the prepositions and prepositional phrases of location ( at the bottom, on top
Test-takers see:
Test-takers hear:
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listening to many different recordings, videos and interviews about the same topic
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Chapter III
Conclusion
The main objective of a receptive skill is not the teaching of grammatical rules and
vocabulary ,but the development of the learners’ ability to understand and interpret
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Reference
WWW.researchgate.com
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