CALP CALP Academic Listening Skills 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student listens to a debate and must evaluate which argument is better supported. What CALP listening skill is required?
- Identifying the speaker who talks louder
- Critical evaluation of evidence quality while processing spoken academic language (Correct answer)
- Counting the number of points each speaker makes
- Focusing only on familiar vocabulary
Correct answer: Critical evaluation of evidence quality while processing spoken academic language
Evaluating argument quality during listening requires simultaneous CALP-level critical thinking and academic language processing.
Question 2: In CALP assessment, a student listens to an academic lecture and then writes a response. This task type primarily measures:
- Basic listening fluency
- Integration of academic listening and academic writing skills (Correct answer)
- Pronunciation accuracy
- Social communication skills
Correct answer: Integration of academic listening and academic writing skills
Listen-then-write tasks assess the integration of CALP listening and writing, requiring students to process and then produce academic language.
Question 3: What is 'academic register' in the context of CALP listening?
- The volume at which a teacher speaks
- The formal, discipline-specific language style used in educational settings (Correct answer)
- The speed of delivery in a lecture
- The accent of the speaker
Correct answer: The formal, discipline-specific language style used in educational settings
Academic register refers to the formal linguistic features—vocabulary, syntax, discourse—used in educational contexts that students must process during CALP listening tasks.
Question 4: A student successfully summarizes a 20-minute academic lecture without notes. Which CALP listening sub-skill is most responsible for this ability?
- Phonemic discrimination
- Working memory capacity applied to academic language processing (Correct answer)
- Turn-taking in conversation
- Recognition of social cues
Correct answer: Working memory capacity applied to academic language processing
Retaining and summarizing extended academic discourse requires significant working memory capacity applied specifically to CALP-level academic language.
Question 5: When a professor uses hedging in a lecture ('some researchers suggest...'), what should a CALP-proficient listener understand?
- The information is unimportant
- The claim is presented with qualified certainty, not as established fact (Correct answer)
- The professor is uncertain and should be corrected
- The topic will not appear on the exam
Correct answer: The claim is presented with qualified certainty, not as established fact
CALP listening proficiency includes understanding epistemic stance markers like hedging that signal how certain or contested a claim is.
Question 6: Why is listening to academic English presentations beneficial for developing CALP in US secondary schools?
- It builds social vocabulary for cafeteria conversations
- It exposes students to formal academic syntax, discourse patterns, and content-area vocabulary (Correct answer)
- It primarily develops phonological awareness
- It is mainly useful for improving reading speed
Correct answer: It exposes students to formal academic syntax, discourse patterns, and content-area vocabulary
Academic presentations expose students to the formal register, syntactic complexity, and disciplinary vocabulary that constitute CALP listening competency.
CALP CALP Academic Listening Skills 2
A student listens to a debate and must evaluate which argument is better supported.
What CALP listening skill is required?