Example: Using television or radio to test your listening proficiency

You can use television or radio to test your overall level of proficiency in the target language. This is a good technique if resources are available, since the news broadcast is different every day and you cannot rehearse in advance.

• Watch a television or listen to a radio news broadcast. Audio tape or videotape the broadcast if that is an option.
• After the broadcast, note the main stories, and describe them in detail to someone who understands the language well.

  Note: You can use either the target language or your own to describe what you heard. This is a test of listening comprehension, not of speaking or writing.

• Ask the person to tell you if you got something wrong.
• Go back and read the description of the different levels of listening proficiency in the ACTFL guidelines.
• Decide as honestly as possible which level of the guidelines your performance matches.

  Note:

  If you can only understand people talking about events you already knew about, you are not at Advanced level. If you can understand most of the international news, you probably are at Advanced level, even if you cannot understand all the national or local news. If you understand almost everything, you are probably Superior level.

• Example of task module: Example: Using television or radio to test your li...
• In task module: Testing your listening proficiency
• In task module: Testing your language proficiency
• In task module: Checking your progress
• In task module: How to manage your language learning program
• In modular book: Managing Your Language Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 15 September 1998

© 1999 SIL International