Identify the purpose of the listening test, keeping in mind learner goals. The listening test should reflect what students are learning and what they need. Do students need to understand academic content, improve conversational fluency, gain grammatical competence or increase mastery of the sound system of English? If the goal is to identify the main idea, the test should not require extracting minor details from the listening text.
Decide on the format for test items and create the test form. Depending on established learning goals, students might respond to the listening passage by performing an action, answering multiple-choice questions, taking dictation, paraphrasing, writing short answers, filling in gaps in sentences or paragraphs or labeling a diagram. In a course that targets English grammar, students might be asked to listen to a passage and check off whether the action was already performed (past tense) or is yet to be performed (future tense). If students are listening for specific details, they might identify a picture based on a description, such as a product being advertised in a radio spot, hear about an apartment for rent and answer true-false items such as "utilities are included" or "the apartment is furnished," select clothes for the day based on a weather report or trace a route on a map according to directions.
Create or secure listening passages to be used in the test. Many commercial programs come with audio files. For authentic materials, you could record a radio segment or take advantage of listening materials available on the Internet. Universities and professional language organizations often have recorded language samples on their websites. If students will listen to individual words ("ship" vs. "sheep"), sentences or short passages, you might opt to read the material during the test rather than use a recording.
Be sure that instructions are clear. Do not risk letting students' misunderstanding of test directions get in the way of assessing listening skill. Ensure optimal listening comprehension by framing the task to activate background information that will aid in comprehension. For example, you could introduce a listening segment by saying, "In the passage you will hear, two friends are having a conversation in a train station." Give step-by-step instructions for more complex listening tasks.
Determine scoring criteria. Scoring true/false or multiple choice items is uncomplicated, but asking students to take notes on a passage or write a summary presents challenges. You might choose to award points for each accurately reported fact or idea gleaned from the passage and deduct points for erroneous information, or you might ask students to list a specific number of facts and award points for each.