Assessing interactive listening in beginning-level L2 Chinese

Abstract Interactive listening (IL) is understood as the interactional process in which listeners not just listen and comprehend but also actively monitor the ongoing talk, display understanding of it, clarify meaning, and advance conversation. Despite its importance in L2 learning, IL does not have much presence in standardized proficiency tests. This study thus aims to develop a rating scale for assessing IL with data drawn from beginning-level L2 Chinese learners’ unscripted conversations with L1 interlocutor. Using the framework of conversation analysis, this study identifies three aspects of IL in which different groups of learners vary most distinctively, that is, 1) the variety of listener responses used; 2) the ways in which understanding and engagement are demonstrated; and 3) sequential orientation. A rating scale with specific descriptors is then proposed.