mobile assisted language assessment (mala): assessing critical listening

The present study aspired to investigate the practicability of mobile-assisted language assessment (mala) in assessing learners' critical listening. critical listening was characterized as a process that encompassed analyzing spoken materials considering related objective evidence, comparing the ideas under investigation with some criteria, appraising the ideas, and performing based on the judgment made. the principal focus of this study was to observe increment in certain critical listening abilities. the items were classified to follow the three prime segregations: spotting the speaker's purpose, analyzing the propaganda, and arguments. the main hypothesis is as follows: there is an ability or a collection of abilities in critical listening that can be instructed and evaluated. the study was conducted through whatsapp- a well-known application. twenty-five intermediate efl students studying top notch 2 participated in this study. participants responded whether orally or written to related critical questions about listening based on what they have been taught. their responses were shared on the whatsapp group including all participants and the teacher. lastly, the participants filled out a questionnaire regarding their attitudes on the method used to raise and assess their critical listening. the learners were expected to analyze the collected test, appoint an appraisal according to a given criterion, and clarify the reason underlying their judgment. the results indicated various attitudes towards mala on the side of the learners; the concerns were mainly regarding fairness and lack of criteria for judging. according to the gained results, 75% of the students concluded that mala was successful in assessing their progress. however, the rest of the learners concluded that they needed in-person assessment to be correctly assessed. mala can be employed for both summative and formative tests. it is suggested that efl teachers take advantage of other assessment techniques alongside mala to get students’ final scores.