ENGLISH COMMUNICATIVE

Subject Code-101
Class-IX-X (2025-26)

I. INTRODUCTION
Acquiring a language means, above all, acquiring a means to communicate confidently and
naturally. In other words, in order to communicate effectively in real life, students need more than
mere knowledge about the language. In addition, they must be able to use the language
effectively, with confidence and fluency. Therefore, the course in Communicative English has
been designed to develop the practical language communication skills needed for academic study
and subsequent adult life.
The course brings together a number of ideas about the nature of language and language
learning.
Knowledge and Skill
One of the tenets of the communicative approach is the idea that Language is a skill to be
acquired, not merely a body of knowledge to be learnt. Acquiring a language has been compared
to learning to drive. It is not enough to have only a theoretical knowledge of how an engine works:
you must know how to use the gears and (crucially) how to interact with other road users.
Similarly, simply knowing parts of speech or how to convert the active into the passive voice does
not mean you are proficient in a language. You must be able to put knowledge into practice in
everyday language use. Of course, we do not expect a novice driver to move off without
preparation: the driver has rules of the highway which he/she must learn by rote. But there is no
substitute for learning by doing, albeit in the artificial conditions of a deserted road at slow speeds.
Equally in language learning there are some ‘rules to be learnt’ but there is no substitute for
learning by doing. In good teaching, this experience is supported by carefully-graded,
contextualised exercises.
Structure and Function
Language can be described in different ways. Obviously we can label an utterance according to
its grammatical structure. Another approach is to decide what function it performs. Consider the
following:
a) “Can I open the window?”
b) “Can I carry that case?”

We could say that a) and b) have the same grammatical structure: they are both interrogative
sentences. We should also recognise that they perform different functions:

a) is a ‘request’

b) is an ‘offer’.
The course aims to recognise the use to which language is put and encourages pupils to be
aware of the relationship between structure and function.
1
The overall aims of the course are to:

(a) enable the learner to communicate effectively and appropriately in real-life situations;
(b) use English effectively for study purposes across the curriculum;
(c) develop and integrate the use of the four language skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading and
writing;
(d) develop interest in and appreciation of literature;
(e) revise and reinforce structures already learnt.

To develop creativity, students should be encouraged to think on their own and express their ideas
using their experience, knowledge and imagination, rather than being text or teacher dependent.
Students should be encouraged to monitor their progress, space out their learning, so they should
be encouraged to see language not just as a functional tool, but as an important part of personal
development and inculcation of values.

II. OBJECTIVES
READING
By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. read silently at varying speeds depending on the purpose of reading;

2. adopt different strategies for different types of text, both literary and non-literary;
3. recognise the organization of a text;
4. identify the main points of a text;
5. understand relations between different parts of a text through lexical and grammatical
cohesive devices;
6. anticipate and predict what will come next in a text; *
7. deduce the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items in a given context;
8. consult a dictionary to obtain information on the meaning and use of lexical items; *
9. analyse, interpret, infer (and evaluate) the ideas in the text;
10. select and extract, from a text, information required for a specific purpose (and record it in
note form);
11. transcode information from verbal to diagrammatic form;
12. retrieve and synthesise information from a range of reference materials using study skills
such asskimming and scanning;
13. interpret texts by relating them to other material on the same theme (and to their own
experience and knowledge);
14. read extensively on their own.

WRITING
By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. express ideas in clear and grammatically correct English, using appropriate punctuation and
cohesive devices;
2. write in a style appropriate for communicative purposes;
2
3. plan, organise and present ideas coherently by introducing, developing and concluding a
topic;
4. write a clear description (e.g., of a place, a person, an object or a system);
5. write a clear account of events (e.g., a process, a narrative, a trend or a cause-effect
relationship);
6. compare and contrast ideas and arrive at conclusions;
7. present an argument, supporting it with appropriate examples;
8. use an appropriate style and format to write letters (formal and informal), biographical
sketches, dialogues, speeches, reports, articles, e-mails and diary entries;
9. monitor, check and revise written work;
10. expand notes into a piece of writing;
11. summarise or make notes from a given text; and
12. decode information from one text type to another (e.g., diary entry to letter, advertisement to
report, diagram to verbal form).
(* Objectives which will not be tested in a formal examination)
LISTENING
By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. adopt different strategies according to the purpose of listening (e.g., for pleasure, for general
interest,for specific information);
2. use linguistic and non-linguistic features of the context as clues to understanding and
interpreting what is heard (e.g., cohesive devices, key words, intonation, gesture, background
noises);
3. listen to a talk or conversation and understand the topic and main points;
4. listen for information required for a specific purpose, e.g., in radio broadcast, commentaries,
airport and railway station announcements;
5. distinguish main points from supporting details, and relevant from irrelevant information;
6. understand and interpret messages conveyed in person or on telephone;
7. understand and respond appropriately to directive language, e.g., instruction, advice,
requests and warning;
8. understand and interpret spontaneous spoken discourse in familiar social situations.

SPEAKING
By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. speak intelligibly using appropriate word stress, sentence stress and intonation patterns;
2. adopt different strategies to convey ideas effectively according to purpose, topic and
audience (including the appropriate use of polite expressions);
3. narrate incidents and events, real or imaginary in a logical sequence;
4. present oral reports or summaries; make announcements clearly and confidently;
5. express and argue a point of view clearly and effectively;
6. take active part in group discussions, showing ability to express agreement or
disagreement, to summarise ideas, to elicit the views of others, and to present own ideas;
3
7. express and respond to personal feelings, opinions and attitudes;
8. convey messages effectively in person or on telephone;
9. frame questions so as to elicit the desired response, and respond appropriately to questions;
10. participate in spontaneous spoken discourse in familiar social situations.

GRAMMAR
By the end of the course, students should be able to use the following accurately and appropriately
in context:
1. Verbs: -
 present/past forms
 simple/continuous forms
 perfect forms
 future time reference
 modals
 active and passive voice
 subject-verb concord
 non-finite verb forms (infinitives and participles)
2. Sentence Structure: -
 connectors
 types of sentences
 affirmative/interrogative sentences/ negation
 exclamations
 types of phrases and clauses
- finite and non-finite subordinate clauses
- noun clauses and phrases
- adjective clauses and phrases
- adverb clauses and phrases
- indirect speech
- comparison
- nominalization
3. Other Areas: -
 determiners
 pronouns
 prepositions
LITERATURE
By the end of the course, students should be able to comprehend, interpret, analyse, infer and
evaluate the following features in a literary text:
1 Character as revealed through
 appearance and distinguishing features
 socio-economic background
 action/events
4
  expression of feelings
 speech and dialogues

2 Plot/Story/Theme emerging through main events

 progression of events and links between them
 sequence of events denoting theme

3 Setting, as seen through time and place, socio-economic and cultural background, people
beliefs and attitudes.
4 Form
 rhyme
 rhythm
 simile
 metaphor
 pun
 repetition

III. ROLE OF THE TEACHER

Unlike a teacher-centered classroom, where the teacher plays a dominant role, speaks most of the
time, and interacts with the class as a whole, for the success of this course teachers will need to
adopt a variety of roles.
Littlewood1 sets out the roles as follows:
• As a general overseer of his/ her students’ learning, the teacher must aim to coordinate the
activities so that they form a coherent progression, leading towards greater communicative
ability.
• As a classroom manager, he/ she is responsible for grouping activities into ‘lessons’ and for
ensuring that these are satisfactorily organised at a practical level.
• In many activities, he/ she may perform the familiar role of language instructor: he/ she will
present new language, exercise direct control over the learner’s performance, evaluate and
correct it, and so on.
• In others, he/ she will not intervene after initiating the proceedings, but will let learning take
place through independent activity or pair and group work.
• When such an activity is in progress s/he may act as a consultant or adviser, helping where
necessary. He/ She may also move about the classroom in order to monitor the strengths and
weaknesses of the learners, as a basis for planning future learning activities.
• He /She will sometimes wish to participate in an activity as co-communicator with the learners.
In this role, he/ she can simulate and present new language without taking the main initiative
for learning away from the learners themselves.
1 Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

5
IV. CLASSROOM PROCEDURES
The main types of classroom organization recommended are individual work, pair work, small
group work and whole class work. It has been the experience of teachers that students adapt
themselves very quickly to the new classroom arrangements, and the interesting nature of the
activities themselves produce discipline. The following sections give practical advice on
organization of different types of classroom activities.

Individual Work
When an activity is designed for individual work, students will be working mainly on their own.
First, ask students to read the instructions (or read them aloud to the students). Make sure that
students understand what they are expected to do, if necessary by giving an example or
(preferably) asking one of the students to give an example. Then set them to do the activity.
While students do the activity, the teacher can move around the classroom, making sure that
everything is going smoothly and giving individual help where it is needed. Do not interfere too
much; remember that too much interruption and correction may discourage students.
Students will work at different speeds, so they will not all finish at the same time. The easiest
solutions to this is to ask students who have finished to compare their answers with their
neighbours’. Call the class together again when the majority of them have finished the activity,
even if some are still working on it. The activity can then be checked by asking students to give
their answers. The teacher needn’t act as the ‘judge’, but instead can ask other students whether
they agree. This checking procedure keeps all students involved, and gives the slower ones a
chance to catch up.

Pair Work
As with individual work, you first need to make sure that students understand the instructions.
Once the activity is clear, you will then have to arrange the class in pairs. Usually it is easiest if a
student pairs up with the person sitting at the same desk. (You may have to move one or two if
they are on their own.)

Sometimes it will be necessary to have three working together, but this should not seriously affect
their work.

If your class is very crowded, with most students sitting three to a desk, one row may turn to face
those behind to form three pairs.

6
Once students have settled down to work, circulate round the classroom, observing and
listening to them, and giving help to those who need it. As with individual work, resist the
temptation to interfere too much!
You may find it useful to set a time limit for pair work activity. This can help to focus the students’
attention and provide a challenge, as well as simplify management of the class. If you wish to do
this, tell them the time limit before they begin, and be prepared to extend or reduce if you find you
have misjudged the time required.
In many pair work tasks, checking can be carried out in the same way as for individual work by the
teacher eliciting answers from the students. Sometimes, though, it may be better for one or more
pairs of students to report back their conclusions to the rest of the class, possibly with a class
discussion.

Group work
Usually, group work, involves four students but at times it may extend to five or six or even more.
Four, however, is a more convenient number for most classroom situations.
The general procedure for group work is the same as for pair work, that is:

- instructions for the whole class

- organization of the groups
- group activity while the teacher circulates
- feedback and checking for the whole class

The major difference is that the organization of the groups needs more care. It is fairly simple to
form groups of four by asking students to turn and face those behind.

7
However, you may feel that some changes are required to achieve a balance in some of the
groups. In this case, move only a few students from one group to another. When the groups move
over to the feedback and checking stage, you may make it more interesting by asking a student to
chair the inter-group discussion.
Whole Class Work
Whole class work, of course, is necessary for maters such as formal instruction (e.g. the format of
formal and informal letters), for “warm-up” activities, for class discussion, for “class review”
sessions at the close of pair work or group work. During the whole class work, the teacher is in her
traditional role.

V. HANDLING PAIR WORK AND SMALL GROUP WORK (PW/SGW)

Introducing and Demonstrating
After a brief explanation of what is to be done, always demonstrate the activity. You have these
options:
 The teacher takes both (for all) parts.

 The teacher takes one part, while one or more students take the other parts.

 Two or more students take different parts.

In selecting students to help demonstrate an activity, always select those who will demonstrate it
well. Also, choose students from different parts of the classroom (particularly from the back), so
that they will have to speak loudly in order to be heard. (Don’t choose students sitting side-by-
side, or they will speak so softly to each other that nobody else will hear!) Don’t allow this phase to
take too much time – two or three minutes is usually enough.
Organising
This has largely been covered in the Section B.3.above. A few additional points:
 There is no need to move chairs and desks, and only a very few students will need to move
places. For the most part, students simply face in a different direction in order to form pairs
and small groups.
 The teacher is responsible for deciding who is to work with whom. (Don’t leave it to students to
decide, or the result will be confusion.)
 You may also prefer to allocate roles yourself, e.g. “When pairs, the one nearest the window
is A, the other is B.”
 If you have not used PW/SGW before, expect a little, noise and excitement at first! But
students quickly get used to the new procedures and soon settle down with minimum noise
and fuss.
Managing
While students are actually doing the PW/SGW activity, the teacher has an important role to play. It
is vital to move round the class, listening in on PW / SGW and helping / advising where necessary.
8
Be careful, of course, not to “take over” the activity by intervening too strongly. (Students need the
English language practice, not you!) Sometimes it is advisable to just ‘hover’ at a distance while
moving round the class, simplychecking that students are actually doing the activity. Make sure that
you distribute your attention evenly over the course of a term; and give particular help and attention
to weaker students.
Concluding

At the close of a PW/SGW activity, bring the whole class together. You may wish to ask a pair or
group to demonstrate what they have done at the front of the class. (Ask weaker pairs or groups
to demonstrate, too. This can be a powerful confidence-builder). Alternatively, you may find a brief
class discussion profitable, in which students exchange experiences that have arisen from the
activity itself, e.g. a problem they have encountered, a good idea someone came up with,
something they did not understand. Be careful not to allow this conclusion phase to take too much
time – 5 minute is plenty.
Many teachers view with alarm the prospect of pair work and small group work with a large
number of students. The following are concerns commonly expressed together with the responses
of experienced teachers:

VI. SOME CONCERNS ABOUT PAIR WORK AND SMALL GROUP WORK
For many teachers, the prospect of PW/SGW with large numbers of students in a class is viewed
with alarm. To help such teachers, the following are concerns expressed, followed by responses
that have been given by other teachers.
Teachers’ concerns about PW/SGW
 It is difficult for the teacher to check whether all students are doing the activity, and (if so)
whether they are producing correct and suitable English.
 More proficient pupils take over weaker pupils.
 Noise levels are high.
 It is not right for the teacher to withdraw from a position of “central control”
 PW/SGW will be rejected by other teachers, parents and by the students themselves as a
waste of time and frivolous.
Responses to these Concerns
 In traditional teacher-led classes, often individual students are not actively participating, but
the teacher remains unaware of this, if a sufficient students seem to be ‘following the lesson’.
 Noise is a necessary element of good language learning – as it is in a Music lesson. It is not so
much noise itself that some teachers are concerned about, but the amount of noise. It is for the
teacher to make it clear to the class what amount of noise is acceptable, and to make sure that
noise is kept to that level. If noise levels get too high for comfort, the “noisy approach” (i.e. the
teacher shouting to get less noise) is unlikely to work for any more than a short while. Instead,

9
 try the “quiet approach”, i.e. train your students to recognise that when your hand is raised,
they must raise theirs and be more quiet. On occasions, you may have to speak to particularly
noisy and excited groups. Please do not let the prospect of some degree of noise put you off
PW/SGW. If students are to learn to use English, then they must communicate with each other,
not just you. And if they are to communicate, then there will be a certain amount of positive,
beneficial noise. Welcome it as a sign that your students are growing in confidence and fluency
in English.
 It is perfectly true that in PW/SGW the teacher cannot judge whether all students are
producing correct and suitable English. (Of course, this is equally true of a teacher-led
classroom where one student is speaking (to you), and all the others are silent.) But we need
to accept that making mistakes in language is not only normal, but is actually necessary if a
learner is to make progress. Advice on what to do about students’ mistakes when speaking in
PW/SGW is given in Section C.6.
 P/SGW encourages all students, even the shy ones, to participate actively. Because they feel
they are not “on show” in front of the whole class, they feel free to experiment with the
language, trying out newly-acquired forms.
 Much research in psycholinguistics in recent years has indicated that peer interaction in
language classes is highly successful. Not all students, even those in the same class, have
precisely the same stock of knowledge and understanding of the language. Students can pool
ideas and often perform a task better together than they can alone. As they become more
familiar with PW/SGW, they learn to handle activities in a mature manner, sensitively correcting
each other’s work. In fact, research shows that appropriate error correction in well graded
activities is just as likely to occur between students as by the teacher in a teacher-led mode.
 If a good student is paired with a less able one, the former is likely to assume the role of a
‘teacher’. This experience is often fruitful for both. The less able student has a ‘personal tutor’,
and the good student also improves: having to explain something in simple terms is often an
excellent learning experience in itself.
 If a task is well-constructed and the students appropriately prepared, the activity often creates
‘peer pressure’ to induce reluctant group members to participate.
 PW/SGW is an attempt to encourage students to accept some of the responsibility for learning
themselves. If the technique is handled well, it will soon become evident that the teacher is
working just as hard as she/he does in a teacher-led mode. PW/SGW is one of a number of
different techniques which a teacher can employ to accommodate students with different
learning styles and for activities with goals.

10
 ENGLISH COMMUNICATIVE
CLASS – IX (2025-26)

SECTION-WISE WEIGHTAGE

Section Title Total Weightage

A Reading Skills 20
B Writing Skills 24
C Grammar 10
D Literature Textbook 26
TOTAL 80

SECTION A: READING SKILL 10+10=20 Marks

 The section will have two unseen passages with the maximum word limit of 600 words. The
passages can be of any two types out of the following: literary / factual / discursive. (Please refer
to the Main Course Book.)
 Objective Type Questions (including Multiple Choice Questions), and Very Short Answer Type
Questions will be asked to test inference, evaluation, analysis and vocabulary in context.

SECTION B: WRITING SKILLS 24 Marks

This section will have a variety of short and long writing tasks.

 Notice Writing for school assembly/ Resident Welfare Association/ School Events/ Classroom
Information etc. (maximum 50 words) 4 marks
 Dialogue Writing, (maximum 100 words) 5 marks
 Informal Letter (maximum 120 words) 7 marks
 Paragraph on one out of two themes from the Main Course Book, based on verbal or visual cues
(maximum 150 words) 8 marks

SECTION C: GRAMMAR 10 Marks

Grammar items will be taught and assessed over a period of time.
1. Tenses

2. Modals

I. Subject – Verb Concord

II. Reported Speech

i. Commands and Requests
ii. Statements
iii. Questions
11
 III. Clauses
i. Noun clauses
ii. Adverb clauses
iii. Relative clauses

IV. Determiners

The above items may be tested through test types as given below:

 Gap filling 3 marks

 Editing or Omission 4 marks
 Sentences Reordering or Sentence Transformation in context. 3 marks

SECTION D: LITERATURE TEXTBOOK 26 Marks

 Two out of three extracts from prose/poetry for reference to the context. Very Short Answer
Questions and Short Answer Questions will be asked to assess local and global
comprehension, interpretation and analysis. 4x2=8 marks

 Six Short Answer Questions out of seven, from the Literature Reader, to test local and global
comprehension of theme and ideas, analysis and evaluation (30-40 words) 2x6 = 12 marks

 One out of two Long Answer Type Questions to assess how the values inherent in the text have
been brought out. Creativity, imagination and extrapolation beyond the text and across the
texts will be assessed. This can also be a passage-based question taken from a
situation/plot from the texts. (120 words). 6 marks
Prescribed Books: Interact in English Series by CBSE (Available on www.cbseacademic.nic.in)

 Main Course Book (Revised Edition)

 Literature Reader (Revised Edition)
 Workbook (Revised Edition)

NOTE: Teachers are suggested to:

i. encourage classroom interaction among peers, students and teachers through activities such
as role play, group work etc.,
ii. reduce teacher-talk time and keep it to minimum,
iii. take up questions for discussion to encourage pupils to participate and to marshal their ideas
and express and defend their views.

Assessment of Listening and Speaking Skills: Guidelines for the Assessment of Listening and
Speaking Skills are given at Annexure I.

12
 English Communicative
Question Paper Design
CLASS IX (2025-26)

TIME: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 80

S.No Competencies Weightage

1 Demonstrative Knowledge + Understanding (Knowledge based

simple recall questions, to know specific facts, terms, concepts,
principles or theories, identify, define, or recite, information, Up to 30%
comprehension – to be familiar with meaning and to understand
conceptually, interpret, compare, contrast, explain, paraphrase
information)

2 Conceptual Application (Use abstract information in concrete situation,

to apply knowledge to new situations; use given content to interpret a Up to 35%
situation, provide an example or solve a problem)

3 Analysis, Evaluation and Creativity Analysis and Synthesis- classify,

compare, contrast, or differentiate between different pieces of Up to 35%
information; organise and/or integrate unique pieces of information from a
variety of sources.

Total 100%

For the details of Internal Assessment of 20 marks, please refer to circular no. Acad-
11/2019, dated March 06,2019.

13
 ENGLISH COMMUNICATIVE
CLASS – X (2025-26)

SECTION-WISE WEIGHTAGE

Section Total Weightage

A Reading Skills 22
B Writing Skills 22
C Grammar 10
D Literature Textbook 26
TOTAL 80

SECTION A: READING SKILLS 12+10=22 Marks

 The section will have two unseen passages with the maximum word limit of 750 words. The
passages can have continuous and non-continuous text inspired from the themes in prescribed
books. Please refer to the Main Course Book (MCB) for types of non-continuous texts. (For
example –Unit 1 has lists, tables, cues, message, telephone conversation etc.).
 Objective Type Questions (including Multiple Choice Questions), Very Short Answer Type
Questions (one word/ one phrase / one sentence) and Short Answer Type Questions (30-40
words each) will be asked to test interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation and vocabulary
in context.
SECTION B: WRITING SKILLS 22 Marks

This section will have a variety of short and long writing tasks.

 Application for leave/ change of subject /change of section/ bus-timings or similar topics in
maximum 50 words 3 marks
 Factual Description of a person/object in maximum 100 words 4 marks
 One out of two formal letters, in maximum 120 words, thematically aligned to topics in MCB.
7 marks
 One out of two articles based on verbal cues, in maximum 150 words, thematically aligned to
MCB topics. 8 marks

SECTION C: GRAMMAR 10 marks

Grammar items will be taught and assessed over a period of time.

1. Tenses
2. Modals
3. Subject – Verb Concord

14
4. Reported speech
 Commands and requests
 Statements
 Questions
5. Clauses

 Noun clauses
 Adverb clauses
 Relative clauses
6. Determiners

The above items may be tested through test types as given below:
 Gap filling 3 marks
 Editing or Omission 4 marks
 Sentences Reordering or Sentence Transformation in context. 3 marks

SECTION D: LITERATURE TEXTBOOK 26 Marks

 Two out of three extracts from prose/poetry for reference to the context. Very Short Answer
Questions will be asked to assess global comprehension, interpretation, inference and
evaluation. 4x2=8 marks
 Five Short Answer Type Questions out of six from the Literature Reader to test local and
global comprehension of theme and ideas, analysis, evaluation and appreciation (30-40
words each) 5x2 = 10 marks
 One out of two Long Answer Type Questions to assess how the values inherent in the text
have been brought out. Creativity, evaluation and extrapolation beyond the text and across
the texts will be assessed. This can also be a passage-based question taken from a
situation/plot from the texts. (150 words). 8 marks

Prescribed Books: Interact in English Series by CBSE (available on www.cbseacademic.nic.in)

 Main Course Book (Revised Edition)
 Literature Reader (Revised Edition)
 Workbook (Revised Edition)

NOTE: Teachers are suggested to:

i) encourage classroom interaction among peers, students and teachers through activities such
as role play, group work etc.,
ii) reduce teacher-talk time and keep it to the minimum,
iii) take up questions for discussion to encourage pupils to participate and to marshal their ideas
and express and defend their views.
Assessment of Listening and Speaking Skills: Guidelines for the Assessment of Listening
and Speaking Skills are given at Annexure I.

15
 English Communicative
Question Paper Design
CLASS X (2025-26)

TIME: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 80

S.No Competencies % Weightage
1 Demonstrative Knowledge + Understanding (Knowledge
based simple recall questions, to know specific facts, terms,
concepts, principles or theories, identify, define, or recite, Up to 30%
information, Comprehension – to be familiar with meaning and to
understand conceptually, interpret, compare, contrast, explain,
paraphrase information)

2 Conceptual Application (Use abstract information in concrete

situation, to apply knowledge to new situations; use given content Up to 35%
to interpret a situation, provide an example or solve a problem)

3 Analysis, Evaluation and Creativity Analysis & Synthesis-

classify, compare, contrast, or differentiate between different Up to 35%
pieces of information; organise and/or integrate unique pieces of
information from a variety of sources.
Total 100%

16
 Annexure I

Guidelines for Assessment of Listening and Speaking Skills (ALS)

ALS is a component of the Subject Enrichment Activity under Internal Assessment. ALS must be
seen as an integrated component of all four language skills. Suggested activities, therefore, take
into consideration an integration of the four language skills but during assessment, emphasis will
be given to speaking and listening, since reading and writing are already being assessed in the
written exam.

Assessment of Listening and Speaking Skills: (5 Marks)

i. Activities:
 Subject teachers must refer to books prescribed in the syllabus.
 In addition to the above, teachers may plan their own activities and create their
own material for assessing the listening and speaking skills.
ii. Parameters for Assessment: The listening and speaking skills are to be assessed on the
following parameters:
a) Interactive competence (Initiation and turn taking, relevance to the topic)
b) Fluency (cohesion, coherence and speed of delivery)
c) Pronunciation
d) Language (grammar and vocabulary)

Suggestive Rubric

1 2 3 4 5
 Contributions  Contributions  Develops  Interaction is  Initiates &
are mainly are often interaction adequately logically
unrelated to unrelated to adequately, initiated and develops
those of other those of the makes developed simple
Interaction
speakers other speaker however conversation
minimal effort on familiar
 Shows hardly  Takes turn
 Generally to initiate topics
any initiative in but needs
passive in the conversation
the development development some
 Needs prompting  Takes turns
of conversation of appropriately
conversation constant
 Very limited prompting to
interaction take turns
 Noticeably long  Usually fluent;  Is willing to  Speaks  Speaks
pauses; rate of produces speak at without fluently almost
Fluency & speech is slow simple speech length, noticeable with no
Coherence  Frequent
fluently, but however effort, with a repetition &
repetition and/or loses repetition is little repetition minimal
self- correction coherence in noticeable hesitation
complex  Demonstrates Develops topic
this is all right in
co mmunication  Hesitates hesitation to fully &
informal
conversation and/or self find words or coherently
corrects; use correct

17
  Links only basic  Often occasionally grammatical
sentences; hesitates loses structures
breakdown of and/or coherence and/or self-
coherence resorts to correction
evident. slow speech  Topics
developed,  Topics not
 Topics partly but usually fully
developed; not logically developed to
not always concluded merit.
concluded
logically
 Frequent  Frequently  Largely  Mostly correct  Pronounces
inaccurate unintelligible correct pronunciation correctly &
pronunciation articulation pronunciation & clear articulates
Pronunciation & clear articulation clearly
 Communication is  Frequent articulation
severely affected phonological except  Is clearly  Is always
errors occasional understood comprehensible
errors most of the
 Major time; very few  uses
communication phonological appropriate
problems errors intonation

 Demonstrates  Is able to  Is able to  Is able to  Is able to

almost no communicate communicat communicate communicate
flexibility, and on some of e on most of on most of the on most of the
mostly struggles the topics, the topics, topics with topics using a
Vocabulary & for appropriate with limited with limited appropriate wide range of
Grammar
words vocabulary. vocabulary. vocabulary appropriate
vocabulary,
 Many  Frequent  A few  Minor errors using new
Grammatical errors, but grammatical that do not words and
errors impacting self-corrects errors hamper expressions
communication communication
 No grammatical
errors

iii. Schedule:

 The practice of listening and speaking skills should be done throughout the academic year.
 The final assessment of the skills is to be done as per the schedule of the school.

18