Book Review: Assessing L2 Listening: Moving Towards Authenticity

Investigating the impact of self-pacing on the L2 listening performance of young learner candidates with differing L1 literacy skills

“…Future research would be needed to examine other aspects of test validity such as cognitive validity by means of asking test-takers about the cognitive processing they engage in during self-pacing and observing their behaviour through direct and indirect process-tracing (e.g., eye-tracking, screen capturing, keystroke logging, and concurrent think-aloud or stimulated recall). Furthermore, future studies should also examine the impact of self-pacing on test-taking anxiety as the stress induced by the listening task can lead to construct-irrelevant variance (Holzknecht, 2019).…”

“…While there seems to be a general tendency for item difficulty to decrease if test-takers are given the possibility to listen more than once (Field, 2015; Holzknecht, 2019; Ruhm et al, 2016), the effect of replay in self-paced listening on listening scores remains unclear. Roussel (2011) showed in a small-scale study ( n = 29) that learners of L2 German aged between 14 and 16 years scored higher in a self-paced condition in contrast to administrator-paced single or double play conditions.…”

“…Nowadays, there is a strong authenticity argument for self-paced listening tests. Self-pacing options are available in authentic listening situations and reflect the non-linear nature of digital listening (e.g., Goodwin, 2017; Gruba & Suvorov, 2019; Holzknecht, 2019). Holzknecht (2019) posited that new media and devices, such as podcasts, audio books, online lectures, recorded (online) conversations, and videos offer the possibility to pause and rewind.…”

“…Self-pacing options are available in authentic listening situations and reflect the non-linear nature of digital listening (e.g., Goodwin, 2017; Gruba & Suvorov, 2019; Holzknecht, 2019). Holzknecht (2019) posited that new media and devices, such as podcasts, audio books, online lectures, recorded (online) conversations, and videos offer the possibility to pause and rewind. Beyond calls for more authenticity and multi-modality in listening exams (e.g., Aryadoust, 2022; Ockey & Wagner, 2018), control functions such as pause and rewind have also been reported as a way of offering learner assistance in computer-assisted language learning research (Cross, 2017; Lawless & Brown, 1997).…”

Language assessment accommodations: Issues and challenges for the future

“…Eberharter et al (2023) raised some interesting questions about test taker uptake of an accommodation that allows test takers to control the delivery of a listening test. Self-paced listening is now an option in operational digital and online environments, and some research suggests that double listening can bring advantages for all listeners (Field, 2019; Holzknecht, 2019). It is possible that the accommodation offered here was not as effective as it might have been because of how the test is delivered, that is, the items are not seen until the audio has been heard.…”