The Effects of Test Preparation on Second-Language Listening Test Performance

To examine the effects of listening test preparation, we had three groups, two experimental and one control (63 learners total), partake in three types of instruction sandwiched between two equally difficult listening tests (pretests and posttests). The first experimental group took four practice tests and received explicit test-taking-strategies instruction, and the second group took the same four practice tests but did not receive test-taking-strategies instruction. That time was instead filled by vocabulary instruction. A third control group did not take practice tests; they had conversation classes instead. We measured all participants’ testwiseness and test-taking anxiety through survey questionnaires before and after instruction. The three instruction types did not have any effect on test performance. Test preparation’s best function appears to be familiarization with test format and the test’s item types, especially items that are relatively new or unknown to the test takers. Test-taking anxiety was inversely related to L2-listening test performance (high anxiety was related to lower scores), and this relationship remained stable regardless of the test taker’s type of instruction.