Toward a Socio‐Cognitive Framework for Validating L2 Listening Classroom Assessment: Comparing Teachers’ and Learners’ Perceptions on English Textbook Listening Tasks

ABSTRACT Second language (L2) textbook listening tasks can serve as classroom assessments, which are essential for learners’ language development. However, concerns about their validity have received little attention. This study investigated the design and application of listening tasks in L2 English textbooks by comparing college teachers’ and students’ evaluations and comments. Adopting the socio‐cognitive framework (SCF) for listening assessments, we designed and validated two comparable versions of the Textbook Listening Task Evaluation Questionnaire (TLTEQ) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and surveyed valid samples of 558 college teachers and 1081 students in China. The results indicated that the teachers tended to be more optimistic than the students about the functions of listening tasks, reflecting an overemphasis on testing and a negligence of listening strategy instruction. Although both groups were dissatisfied with the item design, they rated the choice of materials more favorably. The students rated listening tasks more highly in effectiveness than did the teachers, and these materials had both positive and negative washback effects on approaches to classroom instruction. Based on the participants’ qualitative feedback on the current shortcomings of the listening tasks, this paper finally provides recommendations for constructing a validation framework for the L2 listening classroom assessment and for improving the design and application of textbook tasks.