An Exploratory Study On The Use Of News Broadcasts In Listening Tests For College Students

With the prevalence of Communicative Language Testing, test authenticity has been much more emphasized than ever before. To use authentic materials and construct authentic tasks in listening tests has become test writers'concern.Due to the authenticity, accessibility and informativeness, news broadcasts are widely exploited as listening input materials in classroom teaching and self-learning. Despite their popularity with teachers and students, little attention has yet been paid to the use of authentic news broadcasts in English listening tests.The present study, through designing a news listening sample test, tries to explore the feasibility of using authentic news input materials in listening tests for college students. The author reviews the pertinent theories and practices of listening comprehension and listening testing, and examines the salient features of news broadcasts to form a basis for the quantitative and qualitative studies. While designing a news listening sample test for college students, various factors concerning the selection of the news materials, the delivery of the input, the construction of the test tasks, etc. are taken into consideration and described at length.The quantitative data obtained from the main trial of the news listening test are analyzed from two perspectives: descriptive statistics both at the whole test level and the item level; correlation study on the news listening sample test and the CET listening component. The findings taken from the statistical analysis are generally acceptable. The qualitative study surveys the students'opinions about the current news listening sample test and the authentic news broadcasts. The students'positive evaluation of the former and favorable comments on the latter further prove the possibility and feasibility of using authentic news broadcast materials in listening tests for college students.