Tasks for assessing B1 students listening comprehension skill at Dolores Corona Language Centre

Abstract

Tasks for assessing B1 students listening comprehension skill at “Dolores Corona” Language Centre was the title of this paper. Accordingly, the objective it followed was to socialize the designing of tasks used for assessing B1 students listening comprehension skill at the mentioned centre taking into account the guidelines from the policy for the improvement of the English language in Higher Education and its application in Cuba. The contextualization of the Common European Framework for Language Teaching and Learning in the Cuban system of education has been a requirement since the implementation of this policy and its implications in the teaching learning process of the English language. Listening is the most difficult skill to develop for students and the current way in which it is assessed is not in correspondence with the way students were accustomed to be assessed in the English lessons. In order to design these tasks, it was mainly necessary to interview teachers, to apply a survey and a pedagogical test to students and to carry out a documental analysis. Thus, the assessment of students’ results was required; firstly, because a B1 level is a graduation requisite and secondly because they must master the language for their professional development. In correspondence with the Cuban Policy for Language Teaching, to renew students’assessment process to become it meaningful must be a teachers’ task.