English – Communication
Code No. 101
This is a two-year syllabus for classes IX and X. The CBSE has prepared a package for this syllabus called Interact in English.
It includes the following:
For Students
1. Main Course book
2. Literature Reader
3. Work book
Interact in English has been designed to develop the student’s communicative competence in English. Therefore, content selection is determined by the student’s present and future academic, social and professional needs.
The overall aims of the course are:
(a) to enable the learner to communicate effectively and appropriately in real-life situations.
(b) to use English effectively for study purposes across the curriculum.
(c) to develop and integrate the use of the four language skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing.
(d) to develop interest in and appreciation of literature.
(e) to revise and reinforce structures already learnt.
(f) to develop interest in the appreciation of literature.
Teachers may kindly keep the following in mind to develop these competencies:
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.
Self-monitoring : Students should be encouraged to monitor their progress, space out their learning, so students should be encouraged to see language not just as a functional tool, but as an important part of personal development and inculcation of values.
Teaching/Testing 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 cohesion 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 material using study skills such as skimming and scanning;*
13. interpret texts by relating them to other material on the same theme (and to their own experience and knowledge*); and
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 cohesion devices;
2. write in a style appropriate for communicative purposes;
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), postcards, telegrams, notices, messages, reports, articles 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. recode information from one text type to another (e.g. diary entry to letter, advertisement to report, diagram to verbal form)
**LISTENING
By the end of the course, the 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. cohesion 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 by telephone;
7. understand and respond appropriately to directive language, e.g. instruction, advice, requests and warning; and
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;
7. express and respond to personal feelings, opinions and attitudes;
8. convey messages effectively in person or by telephone;
9. frame questions so as to elicit the desired response, and respond appropriately to questions; and
10. participate in spontaneous spoken discourse in familar social situations.
GRAMMAR
By the end of the course, students should be able to use the following accurately and appropriately in context
1. Verbs
Tenses:
present/past forms
simple/continuous forms
perfect forms
future time reference
Modals
Active and Passive voice
Subject-verb concord
*non-finite verb forms (infintives 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
* Nominalisation
3. Other Areas
Determiners
Pronouns
Prepositions
LITERATURE
By the end of the course, students should be able to understand, interpret, evaluate and respond to the following features in a literary text :
1. Character, as revealed through
appearance and distinguishing features,
socio-economic background
action/events,
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, alliteration
pun
repetition
EXAMINATION SPECIFICATIONS
English Communicative
Code No. 101
CLASS-IX
Separate question paper and answer sheet format replaces combined booklet format from march, 2005 examination.
SECTION A : READING 20 Marks (40 Periods)
Two unseen passages with a variety of comprehension questions including 04 marks for word-attack skills such as word formation and inferring meaning in the longer passage of 12 marks.
1 250-350 words in length – 08 marks
2 400-450 words in length – 12 marks
A factual passage (e.g. instruction, description, report etc.) or a literary passage (e.g. extract from fiction, drama, poetry, essay or biography). The passage will be between 250-350 words in length. (In the case of a poetry extract the text may be shorter than 150 words) 8 marks A factual passage or a discursive passage involving opinion, (argumentative, persuasive or interpretative text). The passage will be between 400-450 words in length. Questions on word attack skills will be for 04 marks. 12 marks
The total length of the two passages will be between 650 and 800 words.
SECTION B : WRITING 30 Marks (63 Periods)
The Writing section comprises of four writing tasks as indicated below:
Questions 3 and 4 are short compositions of not more than 50 words each -
(notice, message postcard) 5 + 5 10 Marks
Important note on format and word limit :
Notice : Notice must be placed in a box. Word limit : 50 words for body of the notice.
Message : Message must be placed in a box. Word limit : 50 words for body of the message.
Postcard : Format of postcard has to be printed in the question paper for candidates to copy while writing the answer. Word limit : 50 words for body of the letter.
5. Composition based on a verbal stimulus such as an advertisement, notice, newspaper clipping, tabular data, diary extract, notes, letter or other forms of correspondence.
Word limit : 150-175 words (For letter : 150 words only for body of the letter) 10 Marks
6. Composition based on a visual stimulus such as a diagram, picture, graph, map, cartoon or flow chart. 10 Marks
Word limit : 150-175 words 10 Marks
One of the longer (10 marks) compositions will draw on the thematic content of the Main Course book.
SECTION C : GRAMMAR 20 Marks (42 Periods)
Questions No. 7-11
A variety of short questions involving the use of particular structures within a context (i.e., not in isolated sentences). Test types used will include gap-filling, cloze (gap filling exercise with blanks at regular intervals), sentence completion, reordering word groups in sentences, editing, dialogue - completion and sentence - transformation. The grammar syllabus will be sampled each year, with marks allotted for :
Verb forms
Sentence structures
Other areas
Note : Jumbled words in reordering exercise to test syntax will involve sentences in a context. Each sentence will be split into sense groups (not necessarily into single words) and jumbled up.
SECTION D : LITERATURE (Prose-12/Plays-8/Poetry-10) 30 Marks (65 Periods)
12 and 13 : Two extracts out of three from different poems from the prescribed reader, each followed by two or three questions to test local and global comprehension of the set text. Each extract will carry 3 marks.
Word limit : one or two lines for each answer. 3+3 = 6 Marks
14. One out of two questions (with or without an extract) testing appreciation and local and global comprehension of a poem from the prescribed Reader.
Word limit : 50-75 words 04 Marks
15. Two questions based on one of the drama texts from the prescribed Reader to test local and global comprehension of the set text.
Word limit : one or two lines for each question if an extract is given. If an extract is not given, the word limit will be roughly 75 words. 04 Marks
16. One out of two questions from the drama texts based on the plot, theme, characters. 04 Marks
17. One out of two questions based on one of the prose texts from the prescribed reader to test global comprehension and extrapolation beyond the set text.
Word limit : 50-75 words 04 Marks
18. One out of two questions based on the prose texts from the prescribed Reader to test global comprehension and extrapolation beyond the set text.
Word limit : 150-175 words 08 Marks
Questions will test comprehension at different levels : literal, inferential and evaluative.
Prescribed Books/Materials
1. Interact in English — IX Main Course Book Revised edition Published by CBSE
2. Interact in English — IX Literature Reader Revised edition Delhi-110092
3. Interact in English — IX Workbook Revised edition
OVERALL ASSESSMENT POLICY FOR CLASS IX
(Including Continuous Assessment)
The English curriculum aims at the harmonious development of the four language skills, and thus of the learners’ communicative capacity. Teaching/testing objectives have been set for each of these skills, indicating the level of achievement expected of the learners. However, although it is possible to assess these skills and sub-skills, it is not possible to test all of them through a formal, time-bound examination. It is, therefore,
essential to measure the level of attainment in these skills through continuous assessment, in addition to the formal examination.
The overall pattern of the two modes of assessment at Class IX is as follows:
1. Coninuous Assessment 60%
(a) Conversation skills 20%
(b) Assignments 20%
(c) Formal testing 20%
2. Final Examination 40%
Promotion
In order to pass at Class IX level, a student must secure at least 33% marks in continuous assessment as well as in the final examination i.e. a student must secure at least 20 out of the 60 that represents continuous assessment, and at least 13 out of the 40 that represents the final examination. One has to pass in continuous assessment and final exam separately.
Continuous Assessment 60%
Continuous assessment is essential to measure students’ progress in the acquisition of skills, particularly in listening and speaking. Unless listening and speaking skills are assessed, they will tend to be neglected. These skills should be brought under continuous assessment.
Continuous assessment refers to the assessment of student’s achievement throughout the year, through a variety of activities carried out within each school. Such activities may be formal, but in order to assess listening and speaking skills, it is important that a large proportion of the marks allotted should be derived from informal procedures. It is, therefore, recommended that marks should be allotted as follows :
Conversation skills 20%
Assignments 20%
Formal testing 20%
Total 60%
Further details are given as under :
| Listening 1. The learner : 3. has ability to follow short connected 5. has ability to understand explicitly 7. understands a range of longer spoken 9. shows ability to interpret complex | Speaking 1. The learner: 3. in familiar situation, uses only short 5. shows ability to use more complex 7. organises and presents thoughts in a 9. can spontaneously adopt style |
(a) Conversation Skills-20%
Conversation skills (Listening and Speaking)-3Assessment in this area relates to the teaching/testing objectives for these two skills. In the skill-based approach to language learning, the importance of conversation skills cannot be underestimated.
20 marks have been allotted for conversation skills, which may be evaluated either through informal assesment (20 marks), or through a combination of informal assessment (10 marks) and formal assessment (interviews) (10 marks).
(i) Informal Assessment-20% or 10%
At the end of each term, the teacher should be able to assess the level of each student’s converstion skills, based on observation of their participation in the English classes. Whenever in the coursework the students are required to discuss, role play, simulate, express a point of view etc., the teacher should monitor the activities and quietly observe each student’s participation. It is important to stress that informal assessment for conversation skills should be a regular, ongoing activity throughout the term. A Conversation Skill Assessment Scale is given below. For each skill, students may be awarded marks from 0 to 10, but specifications are given only for bands 1,3,5,7 and 9. Using this scale, a teacher can place a student at a particular band; for example, a student falling between bands 3 and 5 would be awarded 4 marks, and particularly deserving students could be awarded 10 marks. Students should be informed at the beginning of the year that their class participation will be assessed in this way.
Conversation Skills Assessment Scale
(ii) Formal assessment (interview)-10%
Conversation skills may be assessed through informal assessment only, but each school may, if it wishes, reserve 10 of the 20 marks for formal assessment (interviews). These should be held towards the end of the year, and it is recommended that in order to allow for assessment of all the relevent skills, they should be conducted as group interviews. Students should be organised in groups of 4 or 5, and each group in turn should engage in a discussion on
a topic notified to them only ten minutes before the interview takes place. This is to prevent rote learning of a speech by each student. During the discussion, the teacher (preferably together with a colleague) observes the student’s performance and awards each one a mark out of 10 according to the assessment scale. A school may opt for individual interviews if the procedure suggested above is not feasible.
(b) Assignments 20%
During the year, students will engage in a variety of activities based on the course material. In many a case these will involve written work which may be carried out either in class or as homework. A number of these activities are identified as suitable for continuous assessment assignments, where the student’s performance is recorded and counts towards his final mark for the year. 20 marks have been allotted for these assignments.
The overall assessment policy for Class IX seeks to measure the four skills. Speaking has been covered under conversation skills, and is clearly not assessable through a written assignement. Listening and reading, however, can be assessed in this way, through coursebook activities which lead to a written product such as notes, a table or a summary. This type of assessment, however should not be a test of writing skills. Students should be awarded marks as objectively as possible according to the extent to which they have understood, whether through reading or through listening. They should not be penalised in such assignments for errors in punctuation, spelling or grammar. Marking of these assignments will be based on the content expected to demonstrate comprehension and for this reason assessment scales will not be necessary.
Other assignments, however, will focus on writing skills and involve extended writing. This takes place in writing skills activities in the Main Course Book, and in certain activities in the Literature Reader. Assessment of written work forms an important and integral part of the overall assessment of the student’s ability in the use of the English language. It is in this area very often that subjectivity creeps in and mars the judgement in evaluation because of a lack of clear-cut guidelines for the teachers.
In the new curriculum for English, each student’s written work has to be assessed throughout the year in an informal manner. For this, it becomes essential to provide a rating scale to help teachers to make continuous assessment objective and uniform.
It is recommended that the 12 activities from the Main Course Book and Literature Reader should count as assignments towards continuous assessment. These should be four per term-one each in reading, writing and listening; and from Literature (sustained writing activities). The chosen assignments should vary each year, and students should not be told-(before or after) that the marks of certain assignments will count towards continuous assessment.
Throughout the year, the teacher should keep a record of marks awarded for assignments carried out either in class or as homework, and these marks should be aggregated to provide each student’s final marks out of 20 for this component of the continuous assessment.
Final Examination at the end of Class IX carries 40% marks.
EXAMINATION SPECIFICATIONS
English Communicative
Code No. 101
CLASS-X
Separate question paper and answer sheet format replaces combined booklet format from march, 2005 examination.
SECTION A : READING 20 Marks (40 Periods)
Two unseen passages with a variety of comprehension questions including 04 marks for word-attack skills such as word formation and inferring meaning in the longer passage of 12 marks.
1. A factual passage (e.g. instruction, description, report etc.) or a literary passage (e.g. extract from fiction, drama, poetry, essay or biography). The passage will be between 250-350 words in length. (In the case of a poetry extract, the text may be shorter than 150 words) 8 marks
2. A factual passage or a discursive passage involving opinion, (argumentative, persuasive or interpretative text). The passage will be between 400-450 words in length. Questions on word attack skills will be for 04 marks. 12 marks
The total length of the two passages will be between 650 and 800 words.
SECTION B : WRITING 30 Marks (63 Periods)
The Writing Section comprises of four writing tasks as indicated below:
Questions 3 and 4 are Short compositions of not more than 50 words each - e.g., notice, 5 + 5 = 10 Marks
message, Postcard
5 Composition based on a verbal stimulus such as an advertisement, notice, newspaper clipping, tabular data, diary extract, notes, letter or other forms of correspondence. Word limit : 150-175 words 10 Marks
6 Composition based on a visual stimulus such as a diagram, picture, graph, map, cartoon or flow chart.
Word limit : 150-175 words 10 Marks
One of the longer (10 marks) compositions will draw on the thematic content of the Main Course book.
SECTION C : GRAMMAR 20 Marks (42 Periods)
Question No. 7-11
A variety of short questions involving the use of particular structures within a context (i.e., not in isolated sentences). Test types used will include gap-filling, cloze (gap filling exercise with blanks at regular intervals), sentence completion, re-ordering word groups in sentences, editing, dialogue - completion and sentence - transformation.
The grammar syllabus will be sampled each year, with marks allotted for :
Verb forms
Sentence structures
Other areas
Note : Jumbled words in re-ordering exercise to test syntax will involve sentences in a context. Each sentence will be split into sense groups (not necessarily into single words) and jumbled up.
SECTION D : LITERATURE 30 Marks (65 Periods)
12 and 13 : Two extracts out of three from different poems from the prescribed Reader, each followed by two or three questions to test local and global comprehension of the set text. Each extract will carry 3 marks. 3+3 = 6 Marks
14 One out of two questions (with or without an extract) testing appreciation of global or local comprehension of a poem from the prescribed reader. (50-75 words) 04 Marks
15 Two questions based on one of the drama texts from the prescribed reader to test local and global comprehension of the set text. One or two lines for each question if an extract is given. If an extract is not given, the word limit will be roughly 75 words. 04 Marks
16 One out of two questions from the drama texts based on theme, character, plot. (50-75 words) 04 Marks
17 One out of two questions based on one of the prose texts from the prescribed reader to test global comprehension and extrapolation beyond the set text. (50-75 words) 04 Marks
18 One out of two questions based on the prose texts from the prescribed reader to test global comprehension and extrapolation beyond the set text. (150-175 words) 08
Questions will test comprehension at different levels : literal, inferential and evaluative.
Prescribed Books/Materials
1. Interact in English — X Main Course Book Revised edition Published by CBSE
2. Interact in English — X Literature Reader Revised edition Delhi-110092
3. Interact in English — X Workbook Revised edition
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