10. Testing L2 Listening Proficiency: Reviewing Standardized Tests Within a Competence-Based Framework

2014 ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naouel Zoghlami
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Listening Proficiency ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
L2 Listening Proficiency

scholarly journals Listening self-efficacy beliefs, L2 listening proficiency, and listening strategy training

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Hamideh Hamdi Khosroshahi ◽  
Ali Merç
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Efficacy Beliefs ◽  
Metacognitive Strategies ◽  
Strategy Training ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Listening Proficiency ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Proficiency Scores ◽  
Cognitive And Metacognitive Strategies

Self-efficacy plays an important role in language learners’ performances in language learning. Studies report that explicit teaching of strategies, self-efficacy, and better learner performance are interdependent concepts. This entails the fact that language teachers should focus on the first two in order to increase the learners’ performance. The aim of this study is to find out how teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies affect EFL learners’ performances and self-efficacy beliefs in listening comprehension tasks. Ninety students participated in this study, thirty of whom were part of the control group. Their listening self-efficacy and listening proficiency were measured before and after a four-week training. During the intervention sessions, instructors taught cognitive and metacognitive strategies in an explicit way, which included teacher modeling and teacher feedbacks. The results revealed that learners’ listening proficiency scores increased while their self-efficacy scores did not change significantly after the training. These findings led to the conclusion that low self-efficacy does not necessarily lead to low listening proficiency. Another finding was that teaching only cognitive and metacognitive strategies does not help learners with their self-efficacy in a short time period. Implications and suggestions for L2 listening are provided considering the results of the study.

scholarly journals Sequential Multilingualism and Cognitive Abilities: Preliminary Data on the Contribution of Language Proficiency and Use in Different Modalities

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlijne Boumeester ◽  
Marije C. Michel ◽  
Valantis Fyndanis
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Trail Making ◽  
Listening Proficiency ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Disengagement Of Attention ◽  
The Impact

This exploratory study focuses on sequential bi-/multilinguals (specifically, nonimmigrant young Dutch native speakers who learned at least one foreign language (FL) at or after the age of 5) and investigates the impact of proficiency-based and amount-of-use-based degrees of multilingualism in different modalities (i.e., speaking, listening, writing, reading) on inhibition, disengagement of attention, and switching. Fifty-four participants completed a comprehensive background questionnaire, a nonverbal fluid intelligence task, a Flanker task, and the Trail Making Test. Correlational and regression analyses considering multilingualism related variables and other variables that may contribute to the cognitive abilities under investigation (e.g., years of formal education, socioeconomic status, physical activity, playing video-games) revealed that only proficiency-based degrees of multilingualism impacted cognitive abilities. Particularly, mean FL writing proficiency affected inhibition (i.e., significant positive flanker effect) and L2 listening proficiency influenced disengagement of attention (i.e., significant negative sequential congruency effect). Our findings suggest that only those speakers who have reached a certain proficiency threshold in more than one FL show a cognitive advantage, which, in our sample, emerged in inhibition only. Furthermore, our study suggests that, regarding the impact of proficiency-based degrees of multilingualism on cognitive abilities, for our participants the writing and listening modalities mattered most.

scholarly journals Factores psicopedagógicos que afectan a la adquisición de la comprensión oral de la L2 en diversos contextos españoles bilingües y no bilingües: influencia de las inteligencias múltiples

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Cristina Morilla García ◽  
Víctor Pavón Vázquez
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Education Program ◽  
Multiple Intelligence ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
School Students ◽  
Listening Proficiency ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship

Research on the mind, the brain and education has shed light on the process of learning a foreign language in bilingual education. The present study attempts to investigate the relationship between L2 listening skills and multiple intelligences in bilingual and non-bilingual contexts. The research was conducted on fourth year primary school students. It involved two schools in the province of Cordoba (Andalusia, Spain) and one school in the Community of Madrid, that had implemented different educative programmes for the acquisition of listening skills: Advanced Methods Corporation (AMCO) which is a bilingual education program that integrates multiple intelligence strategies into the curriculum, Content and Language integrated learning (CLIL) and the traditional method of teaching English a foreign language (TEFL). The results of this eclectic study indicate that a bilingual education program that includes multiple intelligence strategies benefits students´ listening proficiency by promoting motivation in the learning process. 

Analyzing the Potential Benefit of Microcomputer Use for Teaching Figurative Language

1992 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn A. Nippold ◽  
Ilsa E. Schwarz ◽  
Molly Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Language Intervention ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
Language Learning Disabilities ◽  
Promising Application ◽  
Experience Difficulty

Microcomputers offer the potential for increasing the effectiveness of language intervention for school-age children and adolescents who have language-learning disabilities. One promising application is in the treatment of students who experience difficulty comprehending figurative expressions, an aspect of language that occurs frequently in both spoken and written contexts. Although software is available to teach figurative language to children and adolescents, it is our feeling that improvements are needed in the existing programs. Software should be reviewed carefully before it is used with students, just as standardized tests and other clinical and educational materials are routinely scrutinized before use. In this article, four microcomputer programs are described and evaluated. Suggestions are then offered for the development of new types of software to teach figurative language.

Dynamic Assessment With Bilinguals: A Focus on Increasing Clinicians' Confidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda K. Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Dynamic Assessment ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Idea 2004 ◽  
Disabilities Education Act ◽  
Effective Dynamic ◽  
Education Act

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are obligated to judiciously select and administer appropriate assessments without inherent cultural or linguistic bias (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 2004). Nevertheless, clinicians continue to struggle with appropriate assessment practices for bilingual children, and diagnostic decisions are too often based on standardized tests that were normed predominately on monolingual English speakers (Caesar & Kohler, 2007). Dynamic assessment is intended to be a valid and unbiased approach for ascertaining what a child knows and can do, yet many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) struggle in knowing what and how to assess within this paradigm. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a clinical scenario and summarize extant research on effective dynamic language assessment practices, with a focus on specific language tasks and procedures, in order to foster SLPs' confidence in their use of dynamic assessment with bilingual children.

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