Keywords

Assessment, Language proficiency, Listening, Language testing

Description

The purpose of this evaluation was to determine how background music in authentic intermediate-level listening items affects the scores and experience of the English language learners taking the Adaptive Listening Test created by the Center for Language Studies at Brigham Young University. The evaluation research found that background music does not significantly affect test difficulty or student performance. The analysis showed a strong correlation between the difficulty levels of items with and without music. Survey results and test scores revealed that students' feelings about items with background music had no measurable impact on their performance, either positively or negatively. Since the background music does not significantly impact the difficulty of the test items and contributes to the authenticity of the listening passages, it is recommended to use best judgement of the item writers in regard to items that contain background music.