. Uluslararası Çağdaş Eğitim Araştırmaları Kongresi Tam Metin Bildiri Kitabı, Muğla 7 Sayfa 398 USE OF CONCEPT MAPS AS AN ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR EFL LISTENING & NOTE-TAKING SKILLS Sinem MADEN LeĐtuƌeƌ, ÇaŶkaLJa UŶiǀeƌsitLJ, siŶeŵŵadeŶϯ@hotŵail.Đoŵ ABSTRACT Listening and note-taking skills appear as one of the most difficult areas to assess in English as Foreign Language classes. On the other hand, one of the learning tools, concept maps, suggest showing the relationships between concepts covered as a part of the course, which can also be used as an evaluation tool (Novak & Canas, 2008). Research on learning various skills in foreign language classes has shown that concept maps provide benefits to students to improve their comprehension, speaking and writing skills. In this study, the aim is the investigation of the use of concept maps as an assessment tool for listening and note-taking skills in EFL classes. For this aim, an action research was conducted in listening-speaking course of university level students. In listening part of this course, after note-taking activity for the target record, the understanding level of students on the same content was tested once through multiple choice tests and by the use of concept mapping activity. Points received from both of the testing tools were individually compared for each student. The data analysis has shown that there is no significant mean difference between the success level of students from the multiple choice tests and concept mapping activity, which suggests that concept maps can be used as an alternative way to assess listening and note- taking skills. Additionally, in case of using concept maps for these skills, the negative aspects of multiple choice tests such as causing stress and recognition of the answer without providing links between ideas can be eliminated. Keywords: Note-taking, multiple choice tests, concept maps Introduction Concept maps are described as one of the teaching tools that can be used in classes to focus on the studeŶts aďilitLJ to pƌoǀide stƌuĐtuƌes aŶd liŶks ďetǁeeŶ the kŶoǁledge theLJ haǀe ;White & GuŶstoŶe, 1992). Students use their knowledge and try to provide links between small units of knowledge, which creates an advantage for students in terms of applying and synthesizing the concepts they learned. Noǀak aŶd CaŶas ;ϮϬϬϴͿ aƌgue that as ĐoŶĐept ŵappiŶg eŶsuƌes ǀaƌious ƌepƌeseŶtatioŶ of studeŶts understanding, it may also be suggested as a powerful tool for evaluation. In addition, this method is useful for teachers as it helps to see individual understanding level of students in a creative class atmosphere. Based on these effects of concept maps, it can be argued that the method of concept mapping may be beneficial for students to show the concepts they know and the relations between them and for teachers to assess students effectively. In foreign language classes, the method of concept mapping is frequently used to probe understanding, especially to see level of students in the areas of vocabulary, comprehension and writing skills. On the other hand, it is not widely used for listening and note-taking parts of the course, which needs to be applied and investigated further to see its effectiveness. Difficulties in Assessing Listening and Note-Taking Skills Listening is one of the skills that is tried to be improved as a part of foreign language classes. Taking notes while listening long records is one of the sub-skills covered mostly in academic level of language Đouƌses. To ďe aďle to ŵeasuƌe studeŶts leǀels aŶd to ďe aďle to giǀe feedďaĐk, ǀaƌious ŵethods used, which brings multiple difficulties for the rater. One of the difficulties in assessing note-taking skills is this skill to include note-taking, paraphrasing, reading and listening skills (Soheim, 2017). While students are listening, they need to take notes effectively, which may require them to rewrite what they hear by changing grammatical structures and word forms. Although students understand what they hear, their lack of knowledge in vocabulary and grammar may affect them negatively, which may cause them to take notes in an incorrect way. Therefore, assessing directly the notes the students take may not be a good way to assess their abilities in note-taking.