This is a complete list of skills tested in the CAEL Listening Assessment. They have been divided into four categories according to the four main skill areas. These skills will be explained in the next units.
Listening Skills Overview
Predicting
- Skim the questions and predict what the topic and main ideas of the lecture could be.
- Use the point value of each question to help you estimate how much information you'll need to answer the question.
- See if you can guess any of the answers before you listen to the lecture.
- Notice the order of the questions so you can predict when in the lecture you might hear the answers.
Identifying
- Recognize the topic.
- Recognize each part of the lecture.
- Correctly hear, write down, and/or recognize numbers.
- Identify aspects of a thing (parts, location, etc.).
- Group information into categories that have been provided.
- Know when you are reading a summary of what you just heard.
- Recognize and collect items in a list.
- Use the lecture to enter labels on a diagram or transfer information to a chart.
Understanding
- Look at different versions of what you just heard and identify the correct version.
- Assess the speaker's point of view.
- Understand the order of events or steps in a process.
- Understand and follow instructions.
- Identify spoken paraphrasing or synonyms.
- Select correct answers to information questions.
Summarizing/Synthesizing
- Summarize the main points of a lecture.
- Understand and transcribe information about a cause/effect relationship.
- Understand and transcribe information about a comparison/contrast relationship.
- Connect details, examples, and reasons to the related idea in order to answer questions or transfer information.