Assessment of Speaking and Listening Skills in English
It is an undeniable fact that national and international boundaries have become seemless. English as a medium of communication has acquired an important role in bringing the world together.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) envisages that all language skills need to be integrated into the English language curriculum at schools. Speaking and listening should be fostered in children to equip them with better communication skills. At the onset it has been proposed to introduce formal testing of speaking and listening skills in the Summative Assessments in English at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels (Classes IX and XI) from the academic session 2012-13 ( Refer circular No Acad -1/2012 dated 28 March2012). 10% weightage has been provisioned in the total weightage of SA I and SA II. (Please refer to the examination specifications given in the Curriculum Document 2014 already uploaded on the CBSE academic website).
However, a number of teachers and principals have expressed the desire to have some guidelines by CBSE for the Assessment of Speaking and Listening Skills. Keeping that in mind the Board has formulated the following:
a.) Guidelines for Assessment of Speaking and Listening (ASL) skills.
b.) The criteria for evaluation and marking.
c.) Two set of sample papers for classes IX and XI.
Summative Assessment (SA) - I
Teachers can adapt or adopt samples given or frame their own question papers based on the given guidelines for SA - I (to be held in September 2012).
As per the Curriculum Document 2014, the Assessment of Speaking and Listening skills will be carried out by schools themselves for Summative Assessment (SA) - I
Summative Assessment (SA) - II
For Summative Assessment (SA) - II, the CBSE has decided to run a ‘Pilot Project’ in about 120 schools from the National Capital Region (NCR) covering Delhi, Allahabad and Panchkula Regions respectively. Schools who would like to volunteer for the pilot may fill in the online registration form and send it to CBSE.
The schools which are not a part of the ‘Pilot Project’ would carry out Assessment of Speaking and Listening (ASL) Skills in SA - II as per specifications of SA I.
For any further query Consultant (English) may be contacted at: 011-23233552 or mail at neelimasharma.cbse@gmail.com.
