What listening and speaking skills are measured?

• A. Reading silently
• B. Participating in conversations, presenting information clearly, evaluating and providing constructive feedback, adapting language to audience, and using evidence from texts to support claims
• C. Solving math problems
• D. Writing essays

Answer: (B)

Understanding listening and speaking skills means focusing on how students engage in oral communication and interpret what they hear. The best option lists activities that require both listening and speaking: participating in conversations, presenting information clearly, evaluating and giving constructive feedback, adapting language to fit the audience, and using evidence from texts to support claims. These are core oral-communication practices—you listen, you respond, you organize thoughts, you tailor your language to who’s listening, and you back your points with specific evidence when you speak.

The other options point to skills outside the listening/speaking domain: reading silently is about decoding and understanding text, solving math problems is mathematical reasoning, and writing essays is a writing task.