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A Comparison of Multiple‐Choice and Open‐Ended Response Formats for the Assessment of Listening Proficiency in English
Author(s) -
Cheng Hsiaofang
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.2004.tb02421.x
Subject(s) - active listening , listening comprehension , multiple choice , psychology , mandarin chinese , test (biology) , comprehension , cognition , cognitive psychology , linguistics , communication , reading (process) , paleontology , philosophy , neuroscience , biology
Listening comprehension involving dynamic cognitive mental processes is invisible and can only be measured by the listeners' reconstruction of the message they have heard. The form and type of response might influence the test takers' listening performance. This study examines whether the subjects' listening performance varied when the types of responses were different. Traditional multiple‐choice (MC), multiple‐choice cloze (MCC), and open‐ended (OE) questions were employed to evaluate the subjects' listening comprehension. One hundred fifty‐nine technical college students whose L1 was Mandarin Chinese served as subjects and received all three response formats in three balanced treatments. The results indicated that different types of responses did have a significant effect on the subjects' performance. Subjects performed best on the MCC test, followed by the traditional MC test. They scored lowest on the OE test. A posttest survey revealed that 97% of the test takers preferred the MC formats because the given alternative answers facilitated comprehension of spoken stimuli and greater accuracy in guessing.