Since listening is a unique type of ability that qualifies L2 learners as competent
communicators, a framework that describes listening ability is requisite for
assessing it. Buck approaches the framework from a new perspective. He argued
that a framework of listening ability could be further divided into 1anguage com-
petence and strategic competence (Buck 2001: 104). The definition of the two
competences and their further taxonomies are listed below:
Language competencerefers to the knowledge about the language that the listener brings
to the listening situation. This will include both fully automated procedural knowledge and
controlled or conscious declarative knowledge. Language competence consists of gram-
matical knowledge, discourse knowledge, pragmatic knowledge and sociolinguistic
knowledge.
Strategic competenceincludes the cognitive and metacognitive strategies, or executive
processes, that fulfill the cognitive management function in listening. This is the ability to
use language competence, and includes all the compensatory strategies used by
second-language listeners. (p. 104)
Buck’s framework actually integrates the sub-skill approach and the strategy
approach based on the assumption that linguistic knowledge and strategic compe-
tence have the same weighting. Language competence can be treated as a global
term that includes all the relevant listening skills, such as grammatical, pragmatic,
discourse skills, under the umbrella term of language knowledge.
3.2.1 The Sub-skill Approach...........................
Up till now, the sub-skill approach is widely employed when it comes to assessing
and teaching of listening comprehension in spite of the fact that scholars do not
reach the consensus whether listening is a unitary skill or a combination of separate
sub-skills (Brownell 1986: 59).
In fact, many scholars have already attempted to list the components that make
up the listening expertise (e.g., Munby 1978; Richards 1983; Rost 1990; Weir
1990, 1993; Rost 1994a; Buck 2001) towards a framework for teaching and
assessing listening comprehension.
In addition to concrete lists or taxonomies of general listening skills or sub-skills
researchers intuitively worked out, there are also taxonomies of specific listening
skills, among which a very frequently quoted taxonomy of academic listening skills
was initiated by Richards (1983: 229–230):
Micro-Skills: Academic Listening (Listening to Lectures)
- ability to identify purpose and scope of lecture
- ability to identify topic of lecture and follow topic development
- ability to identify relationships among units within discourse (e.g., major ideas,
generalizations, hypotheses, supporting ideas, examples)
18 3 Approaches to Assessment of Lecture Comprehension