LISTENING

Baseline: ES Level 4

ES: GLOBAL DESCRIPTION CLB: GLOBAL DESCRIPTION ES: ORAL COMMUNICATION TASKS CLB: LISTENING TASKS

LEVEL 4 FUNCTIONS

  • Extensive oral communication demands in a very complex workrelated social interaction.
  • Leads or guides large groups.
  • Facilitates complex group problem solving and decision making.
  • Persuades, instils understanding of complex subject matter.
  • Motivates, conducts negotiations and mediates.
  • Provides clinical counsel, assesses or evaluates.
  • Entertains with preparation.

INFORMATION

  • Wide range and depth of subject matter, interdisciplinary information; professional, organizational, theoretical, social issues.
  • Language can be highly abstract, conceptual and technical.
  • Information content is very complex and detailed; deals with facts, opinions, values, emotions and controversy.
  • Requires a high level of inference and ability to organize, present and interpret ideas coherently for analysis, synthesis, decision-making and evaluation.

CONTEXT

  • A variety of contexts; complex and shifting from unpredictable to highly ritualized.

BENCHMARKS 11-12 FUNCTIONS

  • Has adequate listening/interpreting skills to satisfy all academic and workrelated expectations for competent understanding of communication. (12)
  • Obtains complex detailed information, ideas and opinions needed for complex tasks by listening to extensive, complex authentic exchanges and presentations in demanding contexts of language use. (11)
  • Follows most formal and informal general interest conversations and academic and professional presentations on unknown topics by unfamiliar speakers with a variety of accents. (11)
  • Critically evaluates various/most aspects of oral discourse. (11/12)

INFORMATION

  • Competently and fluently interprets all spoken discourse, formal and informal, general and technical, own field of study or work, in a broad variety of demanding contexts, live and audio/video recorded. (12)
  • Subject matter is a broad variety of general and academic topics and technical discourse in own field. (11)
  • Infers most of the unstated information. (11)

LEVEL 4

  • Listens to a customer to begin to diagnose a problem; questions and interprets customer descriptions to define the area of the problem, aware that their specific questions lead to detailed information that make the job easier; listens with an open mind for cues that are not immediately evident. For example, a farmer doesn’t tell a mechanic that he changed the parameters in an on-board computer. Farm equipment . mechanics glean this type of information by tactful questioning.
  • Deals with frustration and anger in a customer in the field. For example, a machine does not do what the customer believes the sales representative said it would. The Farm equipment mechanic works through the situation in a way that ensures respect for each person, listens until the anger is diffused, and then works on the machine.

BENCHMARK 11

  • In a video/audio-taped formal discourse, identifies and evaluates specific examples of conflict resolving, consensus building and compromise negotiating language and interpersonal strategies, and examples of conflict-escalating language behaviour. Completes a related task. (11)
  • Follows detailed extensive instructions on complex unfamiliar work procedures and emergency response procedures.
  • Follows detailed extensive instructions on how to play a complex unfamiliar game. (11)
  • Listens to a variety of persuasive oral texts; identifies, analyzes, compares and evaluates aspects of persuasiveness in a related task. (11)
  • Reconstructs the message or position of a speaker by following recorded statements, phrases and sentences that are scattered in one or many texts but are connected as views or ideas. Explains how such specific statements by a speaker relate to her or his main message or position on an issue or topic. (11)
  • Summarizes participants’ positions on the basis of a series of statements by each in a 20-40 minute debate or discussion in a two-page summary. Provides specific details as evidence for the synthesis. (11)