Abstract:
The Listening Comprehension Group Tests are intended to measure English proficiency of adult ESL students at two levels. Two separate tests are used for this purpose and will be addressed separately. First is the Listening Comprehension Picture Test (LCPT) which should be used with beginning and intermediate students. It can be used alone or as part of a test battery to place students in instructional levels, diagnose student needs, and measure achievement. Test time is thirty minutes and scoring is done by the test administrator using an answer key, and percentage scores correspond to instructional levels based on the traditional numbering of college language courses from the 100 level to the 400 level. Since the LCPT is a test of listening comprehension, it can be administered to students who cannot yet read or write in English or who have limited literacy skills. They should, however, be able to tell time and read the words Yes, No, and Today. While looking at a picture of people engaged in some activity, examinees listen to a question and choose one of five multiple-choice responses. Comprehension of the question depends on knowledge of Wh- words as well as Is, Does, Was, and Has. Response options are a selection of pictures and the words Yes and No, and choices are marked on an answer sheet. Two test forms, "Bill" and "Tom" are available. Cross-validations with seven other language proficiency tests yielded correlations from .19 to .66. The Listening Comprehension Written Test (LCWT) has the same purpose as the LCPT but is intended for use with intermediate and advanced ESL students who can write brief sentences in response to test items. Administration time is 45 minutes and the test takes from 8 to 15 minutes to score by hand. Test items involve picture stories that are labeled "last Sunday", "today", and "tomorrow". Examinees are asked to write sentences in response to questions read aloud by the examiner and correct responses include a variety of tenses. At several points, examinees are instructed to write down a question about one of the picture stories. Reliability was assessed as being in the .80s using the KR 20 and KR 21 formulas. KR 21 reliability ranges from .77 to .89 but test-retest reliability and estimates of validity were still the subjects of study at the time of test publication. Like the LCPT, scores are expressed as percentages that correspond to a level of college instruction.