Lexile Listening Measures and Audio Measures

The Lexile® Framework for Listening features two measures:
  • The Lexile listening measure represents how well a student comprehends information through listening to audio spoken in the English language. Students receive a Lexile listening measure after taking an English-language listening comprehension test.
  • The Lexile audio measure represents the listening challenge of the audio material (e.g., story, dialogue, interview).

Both measures are reported on the same developmental scale, the Lexile scale.

Lexile Listening Measure

When students take a listening comprehension test, their result is reported as a Lexile listening measure. MetaMetrics has developed a bank of test items that assess listening comprehension from early grades through high school using various types of audio passages that are typical of the kinds of listening students encounter. They include:
  • Teacher Talks which mirror the language that students may encounter in traditional teacher-led lessons.
  • Radio Reports which provide factual information or explanation about a particular subject or topic.
  • Narratives which are both fiction and nonfiction stories, as well as expository passages read in the style of audiobooks.
  • Dialogues which are conversations among two or more speakers.

Questions designed for early learners are administered in audio format only with both passage and questions read aloud for the student. After students can read simple text, the listening comprehension passage is presented in audio format, and the questions are read by the student.

Lexile Audio Measures

The Lexile Audio Analyzer evaluates the acoustics and content of audio material to produce the Lexile audio measure. The analyzer evaluates multiple features of the audio material to produce the Lexile audio measure:
  • Vocabulary features such as the frequency/rareness of words used and how abstract or concrete the words are. The age of acquisition of the words is also an important feature in determining the listening challenge of the audio.
  • Grammar features such as how words are formed into sentences, the complexity and frequency of grammar structures, and sentence length are important contributors to the Lexile audio measure.
  • Word sounds determine how easy it is to form a mental picture of the words as they are spoken. Word sound features such as the frequency of similar-sounding words (e.g., chair, hair, hare) contribute to a listener’s understanding of the material.
  • Delivery features capture aspects of speech such as the amount and length of pausing, speech clarity and intonation.

Partners can license the Lexile Audio Analyzer API to measure text. See About the Lexile Audio Analyzer API for more information.