EXAMEN DE TITULARIZARE

LIMBA ENGLEZA 2014

SUBIECTUL I
A.a.
a - (4) intensive reading
b - (2) scanning
c- (3) receptive reading
d - (1) skimming
A.b.
The text "UK garbage can be worth billions" could be used during a reading
comprehension lesson, most likely with an upper-intermediate leveled class.
Based on a prior Needs Analysis the teacher could use this text to refer to the students
needs of reading and dealing with day-to-day texts, with current topics and issues of interest.
Students need to read texts in which they can find subjects close to those encountered in daily
life, thus they will be able to better connect to the text and understand its global and even
detailed meaning.
This text deals with a subject of interest for every person, respectively waste and
recycling so it would represent a good choice in practicing reading comprehension in class. Also,
due to its advanced vocabulary it develops the students' abilities in terms of acquiring new
language.
The lesson plan for this reading comprehension lesson could be based on a to-down
reading (reading from "big" to "small") and could have as a starting point the task-feedback
circle. So, it would start with lead-in and pre-reading tasks, in which the teacher could get the
learners interested in the topic and could conceive an explicit link between the topic of the text
and the students own lives and experiences (trying to activate the students' "schemata"), also
focusing on important language that will come in the text. The pre-reading phase could include
reading questions about the text and even predicting some extracted information.
The following focus can be made on the text directly by using reading techniques such as
skimming, scanning, focusing on general points, on the meaning of the text, and in the end on
specific language items. The teacher could ask the students to first skim the text by fast reading
for gist, moving on then to scanning by fast reading for specific information. The tasks could
then focus on more detailed requirements such as tasks focusing on meaning, like answering
questions, discussing issues, summarizing arguments or comparing viewpoints. Tasks focusing
on intensive comprehensive understanding and on individual language items would represent the
final phase in this part of the lesson plan.
The post-text activities could be composed of follow-on tasks such as role-plays, debates
on the subject or wring tasks. The closing activity should draw the lesson to a conclusion, review
what has been studied and what has been learned.
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The aims of such a reading lesson based on the text "UK garbage can be worth billions"
would be facilitating students comprehension of a text, introducing new language items, mainly
vocabulary items and different expressions or specific terms, developing students abilities of
analyzing, discussing and expressing opinions based on an upper-intermediate written text.
The purpose of reading this kind of text would be reading for specific information, as
students would be required to answer certain questions based on the text, or discuss certain
aspects. But, as this type of reading requires global reading skills they merely target location of
information not comprehension of the message. That is why such tasks must be followed by
other kind of exercises. The students could then be asked to fulfill another purpose of reading the
text, respectively reading for the main idea, which could include techniques such as scanning and
skimming. Taking all the above mentioned things into consideration, the roles of the teacher in
such a reading activity are that of: organizer, observer, feedback organizer and prompter.
Effective/ineffective reading strategies:
1 - effective
2- effective
3 - ineffective
4 - effective
5 - effective
6 - effective
7 - ineffective
8 - ineffective
I have chosen the reading strategy mentioned at no. 2 as being effective because I think
that students must build the ability to extract the global meaning from a written text even if they
do not understand each and every word. It is important for students to develop global reading
skills that should enable them to cope with the written text as a whole and get to its message fast
and accurately. For this, techniques of fast silent reading are required such as skimming and
scanning.
The other effective strategy in my opinion is the one mentioned at no. 5. This strategy
could be used in a pre-reading phase by eliciting certain information from the students based on
the text. The purpose of this strategy is to familiarize the students with the content of the text so
that they would understand and decode it much easier.

B.
B.a.
In my opinion teacher no. 6 defines aims in an appropriate amount of detail. He/she
mentions both the main aim as well as subsidiary aims, thus offering a full picture of what he is
aiming at with the lesson.
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B.b.
I think that teacher no. 5 seems to think of the lesson from the students' point of view
because he/she tries to help them to become more confident in understanding oral messages,
which can be very easily applied to their day-to-day life. So by doing this kind of lesson the
teacher takes into consideration the students' needs for learning and producing the English
language, respectively understanding and producing messages in English.
B.c.
Teacher no. 4, as far as I am concerned, is most likely to have modified the aims of the
lesson in the process of planning. He/she may have set as main aim helping students tio refuse
invitations by using the present continuous but he/she may be confronted with having to repeat
the usage of this tense for expressing future arrangements and maybe even explain again certain
exceptions (such as the "see+ing" when referring to seeing a specialist).
C.
C.a.
The teaching point of this learning activity is the use of wish / if only for expressing
regret and the teacher will use the teaching of grammatical items as a language system.
C.b.
The aims set for the students for this activity are: to recognize structures with wish/if
only; to use such structures in order to express regret.
C.c.
Linguistic content of the activity:
- grammatical content: grammatical constructions wit wish / if only
- functional content: the function of expressing regret
- lexical content: words related to expressing regret, words related to teenagers' vocabulary when
expressing their problems.

SUBIECTUL al II-lea
A.
In a role-play, learners are usually given some information about a "role". These are often
printed on "role cards". Students take a little preparation time and then meet up with other
students to act out small scenes using their own ideas, as well as any ideas and information from
the role cards. The use of such role cards can arise excellent discussions and arguments, some
leading to different points of view and natural disagreements which enable the students to
practice on their speaking skills in natural, day-to-day situations.
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The role-play represents a direct test item and can be used to test several abilities of the
learners, from speaking to vocabulary, and even correct usage of grammatical items. Whereas
direct test items, such as the role play, try to be as much like real-life language use as possible,
indirect items try to find out about a student's knowledge through more controlled items such as
multiple choice questions or grammar transformation items.
The advantages of using a role play could be that it encourages shier students to express
their ides, giving the fact that they are speaking as someone else, according to the role and also
that students have a chance to use a wide range of language, due to the variety of the topics
which can be discussed. However, a role play used as a direct test item has its disadvantages: for
one, it can be hard to mark, giving the fact that it does not produce great scorer reliability.
Another disadvantage could refer to the students' personal universe and schemata, thus some
students may feel more familiarized and at ease with certain subjects whereas others may be
intimidated or unfamiliar with them. This is why the teacher must always search for subjects
which can trigger each students' schemata and must play the role of a very good prompter.
B.
1 - orphanages
2 - lessening
3 - ill treatment
4 - over-populated
5- homeless
6- squatting
7 - unlucky
8 - increasingly
9 - doorways
10 - permanently
The item is an indirect item respectively cloze (the deletion of every nth word in a text).
It is an objectively scored integrative technique and it is very efficient as it activates several of
the students' skills simultaneously and the teacher can find out about the learners overall
knowledge of language.
The language system targeted by the item content is vocabulary, respectively forming
new words from a given stem. The item also focuses on language skills such as reading, as the
students must read and understand the context in order to know what word to fill-in and even
writing, because the words must be written correctly in order for the text to make sense.
I would include this type of text in a proficiency test as both the language and the words
used are for the advanced level and by solving the requirement the teacher will have a general
picture of the students' ability and knowledge.
C.
C.a. + b.

TEST
Level: Intermediate
Time: 50 minutes
Scoring: 9 points / 1 point granted
1. Re-order the following sentences to form sentences which express regret: ( 5x 0,4 = 2p.)
a) travel/ I/ New York/ Money/ wish/ money/ to/ enough/ had.
b) left/ such/ he/ bad/ wishes/ he/ weather/ hadn't/ in.
c) mother/ to/ only/ my/ if/ had/ I/ listened.
d) mean/ wishes/ Mary/ to/ been/ she/ so/ hadn't/ her.
e) illness/ known/ only/ I/ had/ about/ if/ his.
2. Rephrase the following sentences starting as shown: ( 5x 0,4 = 2p.)
a) I regret the fact that I didn't study more for my exam.
I wish .........................................................................
b) There was a party on Saturday but my mother give me permission to go.
If only........................................................................
c) I forgot to call my sister on her birthday and now she is very upset with me.
I regret ..................................................................................
d) I regret not visiting my grandparents more often.
I wish ....................................................................................
e) I have a very bad stomachache because I ate too much.
If only ..................................................................................
3. Your friend invited you to his/ her birthday party this Saturday but you will not be able to go
because you are out of town. Write a letter to your friend expressing your regret for not being
able to go to his/ her birthday party. Write your answer in 180 words. ( 4p.)
C.d.
Marking scheme
1. - 5 x 0.4 - 2p
2. - 5 x 0.4 - 2p
3. Letter - 4p.
- 1 p. - task achievement (meeting length requirements, relevance to the task)
- 1 p. - organization and cohesion ( paragraphing, linking devices, punctuation)
- 1 p. - grammar and vocabulary (range and accuracy of vocabulary and grammatical
structures)
- 1 p. - register and style (adequacy of vocabulary and of structures)
C.c.
The learning objectives of this test are to assess the students' ability to produce correct
grammatical structures in order to express regret and to produce a correct written work which
conveys the meaning of regret for not being able to do something.
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The competences targeted by the test are improving students' ability to adapt his/her
language to the discourse type, respectively specific language and structures used in informal
letters and improving students ability to recognize and produce grammatically and semantically
well-formed and correct sentences.
C.e.
Rationale for the test
I have chosen the re-ordering indirect test item because it informs about the students'
knowledge of syntax and lexico-grammatical items, it tests the Ss' understanding of connectives
and reference device, thus developing the sense of logical sequencing, it is objective and easy to
write. The second indirect test item I have used is transformation because it requires an
understanding of the original sentence, grammatical knowledge is needed in order to construct
the equivalent, it is useful for testing the Ss' ability to produce structures in the target language
and it measures production rather than recognition.
As direct test item I have chosen an informal letter with a subject close to the Ss' own
experience, thus enabling them to produce a written work more easily but, in the same time
making sure that they are able to meet the requirements of the item, using communicative skills.