Reading and Listening Comprehension Subskills: The Match between Theory, Coursebooks, and Language Proficiency Tests

Abstract

Different theoretical and empirical taxonomies of reading and listening comprehension (RC, LC) are available in the literature. Most of language tests and tasks in English as foreign or second language (EFL/ESL) coursebooks are based on the classifications of reading and listening subskills (micro-skills) offered in theory. However, these taxonomies have not cross-checked whether the theoretical subskills are practiced in ESL/EFL coursebooks and assessed in proficiency tests. Nor have they listed the shared and exclusive RC and LC subskills in a unified fashion. For this purpose, theoretical subskills offered in Applied Linguistics literature, nine internationally popular EFL/ESL proficiency tests and 25 widely used coursebook tasks were collected, cross-compared, repetitions were eliminated, and a final inclusive list of common and exclusive subskills was prepared. The findings suggested ten common reading and listening subskills. The subskills exclusive to reading were seven, and exclusive to listening were four. This list is hoped to be helpful for teachers in developing their own tests, and the coursebook developers in preparing the content materials.