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Cambridge ESOL IN-SERVICE CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH

LANGUAGE TEACHING
LANGUAGE FOR TEACHERS MARKSHEET
TASK NO. 2 Focus on the learner’s spoken language

Candidate: Sergio Rosendo

RESUBMISSION
Tutors should mark this task using the General Mark Scheme for the assessment of written language on page 39 of the
Syllabus and Assessment Guidelines (2005) and the Task Specific Assessment Criteria on page 22 and the notes to
centres on page 23.

Task-specific criteria
Language Accuracy and Language Awareness
Tick box if met
2a employ generally accurate language in the description of the learners, the lesson, and the commentary on language samples √-
2b demonstrate appropriate understanding and use of terminology to describe a range of learner language √-

Range and Flexibility

2c employ appropriate professional-to-professional discourse √-

Organisation and Content

2d provide examples of the spoken language of the learners and the contexts in which they occurred √
2e draw reasonable conclusions from examples about the learners’ progress in English √-

Audience Awareness
2f inform a professional reader. √-

Word limit respected √

Appendices correctly attached and labelled NA

General Mark Scheme

Language Accuracy and Language Awareness
Comment: Not to
standard
Candidate shows an acceptable control of lexis and grammar. Some ideas were not clearly explained, though. Pass √
Candidate shows some understanding of concepts and knowledge used to describe language. Though terminology Merit
Referred to is not explain in detail. Distinction

Range and Flexibility

Comment: Not to
standard
Adequate repertoire of vocabulary and an overall adequate use of simple structures. Candidate showed some Pass √
problems when trying to express more complex ideas. Merit
Distinction

Organisation and Content

Comment: Not to
standard
Overall, acceptable organisation of information. Candidate provided one general context in which all the samples were Pass √-
produced. A range of samples included, but not all of them were properly categorised. Some analyses were incomplete. Merit
More concrete action points needed to be provided. Distinction

Audience Awareness
Comment: Not to
standard
Information might require greater concentration from the intended reader. . Pass √-
Some incomplete analyses in some samples. Merit
Distinction

Resubmission: Submitted.
The resubmission has been improved. Good idea to have organised information into accurate and inaccurate samples. The minimum task
requirements have been met, as Candidate did not focus on error correction and he analysed the samples from a linguistic point of view. Some
analyses were incomplete, due to the fact that the Candidate analysed some of them on two or three aspects and he did not provide a deep
analysis on any of the two or three aspects. However, the analysis on some of the samples was accurate. Candidate refers to a lot of
terminology, but he does not explain terminology in detail, to help him support the analyses on the samples, effectively.
Overall recommended grade for Task 2. Circle as appropriate.
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WEAK
Distinction Merit Pass Not to standard

First Marker: Rosalía Montenegro Saucedo _______ Date: August 14th, 2017.

Second Marker:_________________________________________________
Date:________________________
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MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSE WORLD ORGANISATION

IN-SERVICE CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH
LANGUAGE TEACHING
COMPONENT 1 - LANGUAGE FOR TEACHERS

TASK 2 - Evaluation of the learner’s spoken language

CANDIDATE: Sergio Rosendo Tovar

Date Set: March 27th, 2017

Date Hand- in: August 13th, 2017 (Resubmission)

Marker: Rosalía Montenegro S.

Return date: August 14th, 2017

COURSE TUTORS:

Rosalía Montenegro
Orlando Delgado
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IN-SERVICE CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

COMPONENT 1 - LANGUAGE FOR TEACHERS

TASK 2 - Evaluation of the learner’s spoken language

Length: 750 - 1,000 words

Task outline

You are required to observe a lesson taught by a colleague and to give your judgment on the
English Language ability of the class as a whole. You should present evidence for your
judgment in the form of samples of the spoken language used by a range of learners. A
minimum of 10 samples should be presented, including accurate and inaccurate, appropriate and
inappropriate language. The samples should show various aspects of language (eg. Grammar,
pronunciation, vocabulary, function, discourse, styles). Finally you should say briefly what
aspects of language development the class needs to focus on.

Guidelines

1. Observe a lesson

2. Give a brief description of the learners (eg. Age, level of English, etc) and of the lesson (eg.
Topics, objectives)

3. Select a minimum of ten examples of spoken language used by the learners and the contexts
in which they were used (eg. The topic the learner was talking about, a teacher question to
which the learner was responding).

4. Comment briefly on what each sample shows about the learner’s progress in spoken English
(eg. What the learner has already learned, is in the process of learning, has not yet learned).

5. Comment briefly on the aspects of language development which the class as a whole needs
to focus on.

NOTE
1. Remember to include both accurate and inaccurate, appropriate and inappropriate examples
of language use.
2. You should aim to illustrate more than just one or two categories of language (eg. Grammar,
pronunciation, vocabulary, function, discourse, style.)
3. If you wish, you may record the lesson and then select samples when listening to the
recording.
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General Assessment Criteria

PASS level assignments will show that the candidate can:

1. present the assignment in language which is sufficiently clear, accurate and easy to read
2. show knowledge and understanding of relevant theory and principles contained in the
ICELT syllabus
3. draw on relevant theory and principles to analyse and develop professional practice
4. present materials with a professional appearance
5. include acknowledged references to a limited number of appropriate sources relevant to
the theme of the assignment. Each assignment should provide evidence of the candidate having
read sufficiently to show understanding of the main points of accepted current theory and ability
to relate these points to classroom practice

Specific Assessment Criteria

Language Accuracy and Language Awareness

PASS level assignments will show that the candidate can:

2a employ generally accurate language in the description of the learners, the lesson and the
commentary on language samples

2b demonstrate appropriate understanding and use of terminology to describe a range of

learner language

Range and Flexibility

PASS level assignments will show that the candidate can:

2c employ appropriate professional-to-professional discourse

Organisation and Content

PASS level assignments will show that the candidate can:

2d provide examples of the spoken language of learners and the contexts in which they
occurred

2e draw reasonable conclusions from examples about the learners’ progress in English

Audience Awareness
PASS level assignments will show that the candidate can

2f inform a professional reader

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COMPONENT 1 - LANGUAGE FOR TEACHERS.

TASK 2 - Evaluation of the learner’s spoken language.

Contents

Introduction... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...... ... 6
Students’ Profile and General Context... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6

Inaccurate or Inappropriate Samples

1) “The Internet loves cats.” [pronunciation] ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 7
2) “Unfortunately my dog chewed my shoes” [vocabulary] ... ... ... ... ....8
3) “The Catalogue” [discourse and style] ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 9
4) “The dog at my homework.” [pronunciation]... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 10
5) Who am I kidding? My dog walks-me! [grammar and style] ... ... ... 11

Accurate Samples

6) “That’s an overgeneralization”... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12
7) “It’s something a bird told me...” [fuction, discourse and style]... ... ...13
8) “Fish and turtles make excellent pets.” [vocabulary]... ... ... ... ... ... ...14
9) “8 out of 10 cats hate Statistics” [vocabulary]... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...15
10) “I don’t blame them for not having pets then.” [discourse] ... ... ... ...16

Conclusions... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 17
Suggestions to help students ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..17
Bibliography ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... ... ...18
Acknowledgements ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..... ... ... 18
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Introduction

This work would be of help for teachers provided I’ll be analysing 10 samples of Ss’
utterances from a linguistic point of view. This shall enable us to gain awareness of the
aspects of language development that the class needs to focus on.

Students’ Profile
It’s a group of 10 enthusiastic and analytical Ss at Campus Zacatenco, Mexico City;
their ages range around the early 20s. Their level is A2+. Their learning style is very
homogeneous; they prefer to learn by performing activities “on paper.”
Most of our dynamics are communicative; besides this, the compulsory program is
strongly focused on Grammar.

General Context
All the following samples were collected during a “free conversation” after a reading-
skills lesson within a contextual topic regarding “pets.”
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Inaccurate or Inappropriate Samples

1. [pronunciation]

—“The Internet loves cats.”

The meaning of this sentence was figurative.

The Ss used the definite article (the) provided the Internet is considered as the only-one
of its kind so, the reference was unequivocal.
He made a stress on “love” to emphasize the action.
Nevertheless, the student’s pronunciation was very faulty.

Conventionally “the” is pronounced as (di) before vowels

and, with a ‘schwa’ (da) before consonants.

Non-Rhotic Dialects disregard preconsonantal r as it is shown below:

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2. [vocabulary]

— “Unfortunately my dog bit my shoes”

The student’s utterance was not very accurate for the reasons discussed below...

[Listening to the rest of the conversation I found out that the student had meant that her
dog had completely ruined her high heel shoes.]

The use of the phrasal-verb “chew-up” would have been more recommendable,
considering that its idiomatic meaning would have helped to express the actual action
and therefore a sense of its extent and its final-outcome.
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3. [discourse and style]

—“Penn State University Library Veterinary Science Online-Catalogue”

An accurate utterance; the style was inappropriate for spoken communication;

many prepositions and articles were necessary on order to connect the ideas on the
speech in a more understandable way, like:

“The Online-Catalogue of Veterinary Science of the Library at... etcetera...”

By another hand, the clipping of Pennsylvania to Penn could be confusing.

On a series of nouns without prepositions, we should take the rightmost noun as the
main-one. The precedent noun-phrases worked as adjective-clauses providing
information about the origin, contents and other attributes related to the main noun:
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4. [pronunciation]

— “The dog my homework.”

The student’s sentence lacked accuracy provided the “apparently wrong” word.
We realized that (due to L1 interference) he’d hesitated about the “pronunciation” of the
word “ate.”
Reviewing the MPF of the whole sentence:

“The dog ate my homework.”

Optionally, we could also consider a short version of “ate” as accurate:

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5. [grammar and style]

—“Who am I kidding? My dog walk me!”

The student’s sentence missed accuracy provided the lack of a verb inflection;
she’d meant to say “walks” and, she soon realized the mistake by herself.

The inflectional suffix 's' on the free-morpheme "walk" indicates that the “person”
involved is the “third-person singular.”

The student’s style was very conversational since she addressed her audience making a
question and then, she answered it herself with a tone of surprise.
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Accurate Samples

6. . [vocabulary]

— “Not everybody loves cats; that’s an overgeneralization...”

The student’s sentence was accurate and appropriate;

the word “overgeneralization” was an interesting example of multiple affixation:

preffix steam suffix suffix

over general iz(e) ation

preposition noun “to become” “action”

noun

This affixation does not change the category, but it adds a substantial new meaning:
pointing out to a situation in which “the action of considering something as “general”
is carried-out in excess.”
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7. [fuction, discourse and style]

One student was being inquired by her classmates and, she replied:
—“It’s something a bird told me...” (with an eye blink.)

The sentence was a quotation; it was accurate and appropriate. The student used it
gracefully as a “function” to refuse to reveal her source of information.

When key-information for the interpretation of a spoken speech lies in an external

source, such is known as an exophoric-tie and, if such source is not revealed, we may
consider the style as esoteric.
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8. [vocabulary]

— “Fish and turtles make excellent pets.”

The expression was accurate and appropriate:

In this sentence the word “make” took an idiomatic sense;
it was used to mean: “play a role as...”

In this sentence the word “make” could be replaced by verbal expressions of identity
like “are” or “can be” keeping a similar meaning.
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9. [vocabulary]

—“8 out of 10 cats hate Statistics”

This figurative sentence called-upon reflection:

The student had accurately and properly paraphrased a worldwide-famous advertising

tagline...

The informal expression “8 out of 10” has a certain idiomatic sense; it means:
“80% .” In our sentence, it was a relative-clause working as a adjective-phrase helping
to define the level of occurence of the collective-noun.

The word Statistics was properly addressed as an uncountable noun.

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10. [discourse]

— “My parents were always very busy keeping me healthy

so, I don’t blame them for not having pets then.”

Accurate and appropriate: It was clear that the student depended on his parents “to be
kept healthy” and that he was talking about the past since he said that his “parents
were” and he referred to such situation as “then.”

He never mentioned that but it was implied that a pet could have jeopardized his weak
health... (among many other possible implications.) So, his speech displayed a wider-
meaning that was able to “reach” many implications. Such cohesive potential is well-
known as “ellipsis.”

Vs.
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Conclusion
The samples reflect that students have a good command of expressivity but they still
need reinforcement of pronunciation and form. Most of their errors and mistakes were
phonological and lexico-semantic. They have also shown need for more vocabulary in
order to elaborate their ideas better...

Suggestions to help students

All of the above demonstrated that Ss’ “lexicon” has reached a developmental stage in
which fluency, communication skills and new vocabulary are becoming a priority.

My Ss need exposure to samples of authentic language that they would use as models
so, at this point documentaries, movies and news would be of great help.

Analysis of Ss’ performance becomes a source of guidance to balance Ss’ weaknesses

and strengths. As an overall: delayed analytical-feedback would be more reliable and
beneficial for Ss.

Word count: 1050

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Bibliography

Anderson, S. R. (1995). A-morphous morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Scrivener, J., & Scrivener, J. (2009). Learning teaching: a guidebook for English
language teachers. Oxford: Macmillan Education.

Rhoticity in English. (2017, August 04). Retrieved August 10, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

The charts were handcrafted by the ICELT candidate

Acknowledgements

I especially thank my tutor Rossy Montenegro for her expert and kind guidance.

I thank for the copyright-free pictures to the web-site:

Pics4Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved August 05, 2017, from http://www.pics4learning.com/

I thank for pictures of phonemics to the web-site:

Cambridge English Dictionary: Meanings & Definitions. (n.d.). Retrieved August 05,
2017, from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/