Task 2: Evaluation of learners spoken language

Class Profile: Students of class 4 were approximately between 9 10 years of age. The class strength was around 20 22 students. Most of them had been studying in this school from the beginning therefore the level of their English proficiency was beginner to intermediate. The objective of this class was to observe pupils fluency as well as accuracy of spoken language. The aim of my peer was to make students be able to read the story using three stages of reading method i.e. Pre-reading, while Reading (Global & Intensive), and Post reading, while practicing other various sub skills of reading, such as students pronunciation, intonation, grammar structure while speaking as well as efficacy of skimming and scanning while reading the text.

Followings are the 10 samples of students spoken language when eliciting ideas through a picture as well as responding to teachers questions.

Sample #1: use of intonation Context: Teacher greeted students by asking How are you all? Students chanted together in response to teachers greeting. We are fine, very well, what about you? Comment Sample above is an example of the use of intonation i.e. students sound pattern of sentences were produced by pitch variation in their voices. One of the reasons to this could be formulaic sentences which are used frequently throughout their course of school.

Sample #2: grammatical error Context: Teacher asked students where did you go for summer vacations and what did you see there? Student replied I go to the Pakistan tour. Comment Here the student has used wrong tense + preposition, however if she had some knowledge of using past tense with appropriate supporting preposition she would have easily responded correctly. I go to the Pakistan tour should be I went on Pakistan tour.

Sample #3: Wrong use of Article (the) Context: In response to the same questions above in sample #2 one of the students answers I saw the real Hippopotamus. Comment: This evidence depicts that this child has used a definite article the, as he may not be explained thoroughly during his academic years on form of definite and indefinite articles for different nouns. Since it must not be only one hippo hed seen or hes not talking about something he knows fairly well, therefore use of some hippopotamuses should have been used.

Sample #4: at least 2 full seconds of pause after going I am (pause) going Murree (pause) Murree and Sawat. Comment: Student in this sample demonstrates lack of vocabulary with no knowledge of tenses to be used appropriately. She doesnt seem to be comfortable while responding to the teacher when using verb+ing to be used. Sample # 5: paraphrase (Children in the forest) Context: Teacher puts up a picture on the B.B, and tried eliciting ideas by asking different questions. T: what is this picture about? S: forest T: What do you see in the picture? S1: children S2: Children in the forest. This sample shows after listening to several nouns this student manages to rephrase the syntax proficiently. Children in the forest.

Sample #6: visual style Context: By showing the picture pasted on the Black board teacher asked students if they can tell where are the kids standing? T: Where are they standing? S1: In the forest S2: On the stone Comment: This sample shows the learning style of the students is more over visual and they are able to make accurate phrases if not complete sentences by visualizing the image.

Sample # 7: use of L1 (literal translation)

Context: In response to teachers questions from sample #5 T: What are they doing? S: said in his mother tongue first then retold in English Thinking what to do? Comment: student in this evidence has first uttered in his L1 before answering in L2 language (English). He seems more comfortable using his native language before translating into L2, may be the in class they are used to first say the answers in the native language and then translate them to English, or they practice translating words, phrases and sentences as a part of their language learning.

Sample # 8: Use of auxiliary verb can Context: Students were asked by teacher an inferential question before reading the text. T: what do you think they will do in the forest? S1: They do cut the forest. S2: They can enjoy picnic. Comment: Student 2 discoursed by using supporting verb to complete his sentence. Although the sentence is correct and fluent but he is unable to use the sentence in future tense, which should be They will enjoy picnic

Sample # 9: Not able to pronounce word character Context: Teacher put up a chart on B.B and asks students to read questions from the chart. S1: where did they go for picnic? S2: can you tell the games they played? S3: How many charter Other students read the word for her How many characters were in the story? Comment: A student recast her colleagues pronunciation Character and rereads the sentence. This could be a good example of peer correction.

Sample #10: Unable to use accurate tense Context: Teacher then gave students 10 mins to read the story to look for answers on Chart. Teacher then asks students T: Where did they go for the picnic? S1: they go forest for picnic. S2: they go to the village.

T: What games did they play? S1: they play hide & seek. S2: cricket, football, hide & seek

T: What did they eat? Ss: They eat biscuits, sandwich, chips... Comment: Students in this regard are unable to communicate in past tense, which apparently shows they do not have sufficient knowledge of using past tense in their sentences.

Overall comments: In sum, a single observation does not offer a complete picture of the classs total language performance. Nevertheless, the aforesaid inaccurate samples could be considered, to the best of my knowledge, as developmental errors. Irrespective of flawed as well as ill-formed utterances, students were enthusiastic to speak English. Being beginners, they are unconscious to the areas they need to work on. Pronunciations were correct to some extent at this stage. From school perspective students need to be facilitated with the development of their forms of grammar, its use and usage, work more with visual style to get them into the habitual speaker by using all the tenses, parts of speech as well as increase their vocabularies.