The results of Powers’ (1986) survey and Richards’ (1983) list of listening skills
needed for academic success shed light on the required abilities for lecture comprehension. Powers’ and Richards’ taxonomies of academic listening both include, among others, the ability to identify main ideas of a lecture, the ability to identify relationships among major ideas in a lecture, and the ability to recognize key information related to a topic. Simply put, their studies suggest that students’ lecture comprehension depends on their abilities to understand the main and major points and supporting details of a lecture. In this study, considering the most important activities listed in Powers’ survey and Richards’ academic listening micro-skills, three major constructs—the comprehension of main ideas, major ideas, and supporting details of a lecture—were used to decide the most appropriate types of questions to use to measure test takers’ lecture comprehension.
Recently, as second/foreign language listening tests have been delivered via computer, various aspects of test quality have been enhanced. Among other things, the effectiveness in terms of scoring time and accuracy has been much improved and specifically might enhance the two aspects of authenticity of the listening test (Chapelle, 2003; Chapelle & Douglas,
). In a computer or web-based listening
test presenting listening texts in a video format, the situational authenticity might be enhanced by replicating the features of real-world listening. In addition, automatic response analysis in web-based listening tests may significantly enhance scoring efficiency in large-scale tests and make the extended response format possible. This would increase interactional authenticity over the selected response format because the former requires a greater breadth and depth of language knowledge and more use of strategic competence (Chapelle & Douglas, 2006), which is often required in the process of learners’ comprehension of lectures (Rost, 1990;
Flowerdew, 1994; Flowerdew & Miller, 2005).