Evaluation of L2 Listening Comprehension: In Pursuit of Measurement Units Enhancement

Abstract

Second language (L2) listening comprehension remains one of the most under researched problems in field largely due to the corresponding methodological difficulties. This study focuses on the development of such a measurement unit that considers the actual grammatical completeness and does not distort the factual semantics of the perceived text – listening comprehension unit. The concept of LC unit is developed based on a structural-ontological approach, which is a tool for systemic description of the multidisciplinary subject matter fields. To validate LC units, a study was carried out on a sample of 38 English L2 learners. Study participants were grouped according to their IELTS results, and LC unit scores were compared with idea unit ones. The obtained empirical data were processed with One-way ANOVA test and proper results support the following conclusions. First, LC units can be used to measure and differentiate levels of L2 listening comprehension of short texts. Secondly, the study demonstrates a higher differential sensitivity of LC units compared to idea units in L2 listening comprehension levels diagnostics.

Keywords: listening comprehension, psycholinguistic measurement, idea unit, structural-ontological approach, semantic role, subject, actualizer, specification, localization