Assessing Listening Skills In Primary High-School And College

Assessing Listening Skills in Primary School, High-School and College

Javier I. Zuñiga

Universidad Austral de Chile























Assessing listening skills isone of the most important areas of language teaching. Listening is an essential part in the acquisition of the English language; consequently, teachers should assess it throughout the entire academicprocess of a student. Experiencing an early exposure to the language will enhance the familiarity and the confidence that a student feels towards the target language, and it will facilitate theacquisition process. Moreover, it provides students with a deeper understanding of how the English language is developed in realistic settings. Assessing listening skills is a process that should developedin primary school, high-school and college.

It is fundamental to assess listening skills in primary schools. The assessment of listening comprehension should begin as early as possible in theacademic life of a student. According to Newton (2009), “listening is the natural precursor of speaking; the early stages of language development in a person’s first language (and in naturalisticacquisition of other languages) are dependent on listening” (p. 37). That is to say, an early exposure and testing of the students’ listening skills will reinforce and enhance the acquisition of the Englishlanguage from a naturalistic perspective. Listening skills should be developed and tested early on primary schools.

Listening skills should be constantly assessed in high-school. If assessinglistening in primary schools was important in terms of exposure and familiarity, assessing listening plays an essential role in high-schools since it reinforces the skills previously acquired and developscritical thinking. Students in high-school should not be expected to simply understand the words mentioned in a listening test; moreover, they should be able to understand main ideas and specific...