Toward A Communicative Approach To The Assessment Of Listening Comprehension

Every year, China Scholarship Council (CSC) will sponsor those people who aregoing to further their studies or academic researches abroad. In order to gain thisopportunity, they have to take either PETS-5(Public English Test System–level5) orCSC-ET (China Scholarship Council English Test). PETS-5is a communicativepublic test for anyone who wants his/her English level to be assessed. CSC-ET is acommunicative test for those who have received one semester of language training atany training centers designated by the Ministry of Education. The purpose is to assesswhether they, after training, are competent enough for further academic studies orresearches abroad.The purpose of this essay is to find out which test performs better in assessingcandidates’ English communicative ability. In recent years, listening has beenassuming greater and greater importance in foreign language classrooms because ofthe development of second language acquisition research. This paper concentrates onthe examination of their academic listening ability. According to research theories ofcommunicative language testing and listening, conclusions are drawn and suggestionsare put forward for further improvement after qualitative and quantitativecomparisons.