A Comparative Study On Selected Response And Constructed Response In Listening Comprehension Question Types

There are two response types, multiple choice response and constructed response, in testing the communicative language ability. Multiple choice test is often used in the current English testing; Recently, however, more attention has been paid to the constructed response. This paper discusses which type of response proves to be closer to the testees' actual language proficiency level in the listening comprehension test. The research data were collected through the listening test, questionnaire and interview. Results indicated that constructed response type was more valid in testing the students' language proficiency level. It also suggests that if possible, more questions requiring constructed response should be used, especially in small-scaled English tests, to enhance the test validity.