Developing an Alternative Listening Comprehension Test to Benchmark Malaysian Undergraduates' Listening Performances

• Main Authors: Abidin, MJZ (Author), Ahmad, I (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: benchmarking; listening; listening comprehension test; listening performance; test
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Listening is a fundamental skill in which students are required to gain adequate proficiency for their successful academic achievement. Since 2010, reports from a national exam have exhibiting a worrying trend in listening component where most of the candidates scored level 1 and 2 which indicating them as limited and very limited users. In view of this situation, this study aimed to develop an alternative listening comprehension test to benchmark and profile learners' listening performance. Test constructed was based on Weir's socio-cognitive framework for validating tests and Geranpayeh and Taylor's Cognitive Processing Model. It consists of 50 items with 7 types of response formats and administered to 380 students from a public university. Students' performances were benchmark based on their test score and profiled according to 5 performance standards. From the findings, 37.4% of the participants cleared the listening performance benchmark where 142 met the expectations and 129 exceeded the expectations. A total of 102 of the participants fell below the expectation level. Benchmarking and profiling the students have offered comprehensive information on the students as early as possible in identifying who might be at risk or need help.