A neurocognitive investigation of test methods and gender effects in listening assessment

Abstract

A neurocognitive investigation of test methods and gender effects in listening assessment

Assessing Second Language Listening Over the Past Twenty Years: A Review Within the Socio-Cognitive Framework

“…For instance, Chou (2019) investigated whether gender predicted self-efficacy in test preparation for the listening section of the University Entrance Examination test in Taiwan and reported that gender was not associated with self-efficacy, test anxiety, and strategy use. Moreover, Aryadoust et al (2020) conducted a neuroimaging study and employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to uncover the test-takers’ neurocognitive mechanisms involved in listening tests. They observed differences in neural substrates across genders, although differences in the test scores of males and females were not statistically significant.…”

“…Listening subskills were found to be different in terms of various grain sizes ( Sawaki et al, 2009 ), and the contribution of a particular listening subskill was not consistent across items ( Yi, 2017 ), indicating the vague definition of L2 listening subskills ( Aryadoust, 2020 ). To address this gap, Aryadoust (2020) used the document co-citation analysis to give a systematic review of research on comprehension subskills. An integrative framework of comprehension subskills was provided, which included a total of 18 L2 comprehension subskills.…”

“…More recently, Holzknecht et al (2020) observed that test takers paid significantly less attention to later options when answering listening items from the Aptis Test using eye-tracking technology. Aryadoust et al (2020) investigated brain activation patterns under test conditions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Among the main techniques of understanding how different parts of the brain are engaged in psychological and behavioral functions ( Burunat and Brattico, 2017 ), fMRI has been used by neuroscientists and physicians and was first applied to L2 listening assessment by Aryadoust et al They introduced the notion of neurocognitive validity, which means that a listening test should engage the neurocognitive processes which are required in real-life contexts.…”

“…Recent years have witnessed an increasing use of advanced technology, such as eye-tracking technology and neuroimaging, which has brought about important development in the field. For instance, the notion of cognitive validity has been expanded, as researchers probed into the neurocognitive mechanism of test takers (Aryadoust et al, 2020). However, it is still difficult to understand test-takers' cognitive processes due to the highly overlapping and synergistic nature of comprehension (Alderson, 1990).…”

“…Advanced technology has been employed in the investigation of cognitive processes, including eye-tracking technology (Suvorov, 2015;Holzknecht et al, 2020) and neuroimaging (Aryadoust et al, 2020). Test-takers' eye movement during the listening test can be recorded by eye-tracking technology to understand their oculomotor engagement with test items, such as the stems and options of multiple-choice questions.…”