G.C.E. A/L - General English - Teachers' Guide
The revised syllabus for General English to be implemented from the year 2017 emphasizes the ability levels students should reach in order to perform certain tasks with the language. It lists out the ability levels in quite specific terms so that the learners themselves can evaluate their abilities.
This confidence will be reflected in learners being able to now assert these specific ‘can-do statements’ in relation to English Language skills that they have mastered. The ‘can-do’ statements that are asserted correlate to the competencies that were used in Grades 6 to 11, and this relationship has been emphasized by listing the corresponding competencies that relate to each of them.
Though the ‘can-do’ statements are a novel aspect introduced in the syllabus, they are related to the eight major competencies identified for the secondary level in 2007.
According to the Association of Language Testers in Europe, (ALTE) ‘can-do’ statements describe what a person ‘can-do’ using the language in a particular context. The four contexts are general, social, work and study. Learning that is guided by ‘can-do’ statements enables a student to become an autonomous and life-long learner who will develop the main subject-related competencies. ‘Can-do’ statements permit the students, teachers, and parents to assess the progress of the learning process in relation to all 4 skills namely, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
All four language skills are important for the mastery of a language. The receptive, seemingly passive listening skill will allow the learner to launch into the active skill of speaking. The learner has to be guided to have definite purposes for listening. Correspondingly, in speaking, the speaker will wish to achieve definite results through what he says.
Reading has always been known to be hardly ever passive. Rather than aiming to test the student, the emphasis now is on his/her ability to use the examples of reading texts so that he/she can extract specific details or respond in other appropriate ways as per the purpose. Every effort has been made to present a wide, interesting, and realistic array of texts. When the student is expected to produce his own writing, the ability to convey what he intends being assessed at various levels in his/her writing.
In relation to teaching all 4 skills, the teacher must monitor performance standards in all areas so that School-Based Assessments (SBA) become realistic and meaningful. Although there are no plans to evaluate listening and speaking skills at a summative examination, these skills are of vital importance to students who are about to enter the wider world, and it is very important that these skills become an integral part of SBA.
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G.C.E. A/L - Grade 12 & 13 - General English - Teachers' Guide
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