1|Page

ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

ISLAMABAD

Name: Shaukat Hussain Afridi

Registration No:
Roll No:
Programme: PGD TEFL

Assignment / Subject: Language Skills-II (5660)

Submitted by: Shaukat Hussain Afridi

Submitted to:
Date: 30TH April---------------
2|Page

Q.1: What are the salient features of communicative

writing? Discuss in detail.
Ans: Written Communication:

Meaning, Advantages and Disadvantages

Written communication has great significance in today‘s business world. It is an innovative
activity of the mind. Effective written communication is essential for preparing worthy
promotional materials for business development. Speech came before writing. But writing is
more unique and formal than speech. Effective writing involves careful choice of words, their
organization in correct order in sentences formation as well as cohesive composition of
sentences. Also, writing is more valid and reliable than speech. But while speech is
spontaneous, writing causes delay and takes time as feedback is not immediate.

Characteristics Of Effective Communication

The real meaning of communication is getting the receiver and the sender tuned together for a
particular message. Communication takes place when one person transfers some
understandable data to another person. It also includes the exchange of thoughts, opinions,
sentiments, facts, and information between two or more persons. Feedback is very important
as it assures that your message should be properly conveyed to the receiver.

The essential features of an effective communication system are keys for productive
communication. The chief principles or characteristics of an effective communication system
are as follows: -

1. Clearness and integrity of message to be conveyed.

2. Adequate briefing of the recipient.
3. Accurate plan of objectives.
4. Reliability and uniformity of the message.
5. To know the main purpose of the message.
6. Proper response or feedback.
7. Correct timing.
8. Use of proper medium to convey the message properly.
9. Use of informal communication.

The following are some important guidelines to make communication effective:

1. Try to simplify your thoughts before communicating your message.

2. You must analyse the intent of each and every message.
3. Consider the overall physical setting whenever you communicate.
4. You must discuss with others, where appropriate, in planning communication.
5. Be careful while communicating, of the overtone as well as basic content of your
message.
6. Take the opportunity to suggest something of help or value of the receiver.
7. Follow-up your communication.
3|Page

8. Prepare yourself for transmitting the message in a proper way.

9. Be sure your actions support your communication.
10. Seek not only to be understood but understand.

How To Make Communication Effective?

Effective communication is crucial for the success of an organization. Communication takes
place when one person transfers data and understanding to another person. An effectual
communication is one which is properly followed by the ‗receiver of the message and his
feedback is known to the ‗sender‘ or transmitter. The below are some points that may be
taken to lessen communication barriers for making it more valuable: -

 It is very important to be familiar with the ‗audience‘ for whom the message is meant.
The message to be communicated must be clear in the mind of the communicator
because if you don‘t comprehend an idea, you can never convey it to other person.
The message should be adequate and apposite towards the communication purpose.
 In order to avert semantic barriers, the message should be conveyed in easy, concise
and understandable language. The expressions or signs chosen for communicating the
message must be suitable to the reference and understanding of the recipient.
 To make business communication effective, the structure of the organization must be
sound and suitable to the requirements of the organization. The management should
make efforts to make communication process more effective and understandable.
 To avoid creditability gap, management must guarantee that their procedures and
activities are in accordance with the communication. Communication is not complete
unless the reply or response of the receiver of the message is received by the sender or
communicator. The success of communication can be evaluated from the reaction.
Therefore, feedback must be bucked up and examined.

Written Communication
Communication through words may be in writing or oral. Written communication entails
transmission of message in black and white. It mainly consists of diagrams, pictures, graphs,
etc. Reports, policies, rules, orders, instructions, agreements, etc have to be conveyed in
written form for proper functioning of the organization.

Written communication guarantees that everyone concerned has the same information. It
provides a long-lasting record of communication for future. Written instructions are essential
when the action called for is crucial and complex. To be effectual, written communication
4|Page

should be understandable, brief, truthful and comprehensive. The main advantages and
disadvantages of written communication are as follows: -

Merits of written communication

 It ensures transmission of information in uniform manner.
 It provides a permanent record of communication for future reference.
 It is an idealistic way of conveying long messages.
 It ensures little risk of unauthorized alteration in the message.
 It tends to be comprehensive, obvious and accurate.
 It is well suited to express messages to a large number of persons at the same time.
 It can be quoted as legal evidence in case of any disputes.

Demerits of written communication

 It is costly and time consuming.
 It becomes difficult to maintain privacy about written communication.
 It is rigid and doesn‘t provide any scope for making changes for inaccuracies that
might have crept in.
 It is very formal and lacks personal touch.
 It boosts red-tapism and involves so many formalities.
 It may be represented in a different way by different people.

Q.2:Explain the roles of „Grammatical Groups‟ and “Sense Groups” in

language learning.
Ans: Grammatical groups:
Grammar is nothing but the sum of rules and regulations of the language. There is ongoing
debate regarding the influence of grammar in English language learning from the last few
decades. But it is the fact that grammar plays an important role in second language learning.
Knowing a language means commanding over its four basic skills- Listening, Speaking,
Reading and Writing. So it is impossible to speak English accurately without the use of
proper grammar. Each and every technical document and others should be free from
grammatical mistakes. Knowledge of grammar is useful to correct the mistakes and to
improve one‘s script. Learning grammar is not necessary to learn first language as one can
learn it through unconscious process. No one can learn grammar of second language
5|Page

accurately through unconsciously. Grammar should be taught or learnt. There are many ways,
methods and approaches to learn second language. Learning grammar is one of the important
ways to speak English effectively, accurately and fluently. This article aims at present
importance of grammar and how does it influence language skills of second language. And it
gives examples that learning grammar is necessary to learn second language. KEY WORDS:
Grammar- English language learning- importance & role of grammar- grammatical
competence.
Introduction:
Canale & Swain (1980) proposed that grammatical competence was an integral part of
communicative competence. One can‘t communicate effectively without having the
knowledge of grammar. There are many methods, approaches to learn English language
effectively. They are Direct method, Bilingual method, Reading method, Audio-lingual
method, Situational approach, Communicative approach, Electic approach, suggestopedia etc.
All these methods & approaches are communicative competence centered. Effective
communication involves knowing how to use the grammar and vocabulary of the language to
reach communicative goals. So grammar learning is necessary to achieve these goals. A good
command over the grammar of a language does not imply that one is able to communicate
effectively and at the same time those who can speak English fluently, they are not
considered effective communicators. Accuracy is the most important along with fluency.
Fluency can be developed by communicative centered approaches but accuracy can only be
learnt by knowing and use of proper grammar.

ROLE OF GRAMMAR IN SPEAKING BETTER

Speaking and writing are active skills where as listening and reading are passive skills.
Grammar plays a vita role in speaking & writing better. Most of the undergraduate students
are neglecting basic grammar concepts. So it hampers speaking English effectively. One
should have minimum idea on basic grammar like tenses, articles, prepositions, verbs etc. For
example one can speak English freely by using the structure subject+verb1+Object. One can
narrate the cinema story, general tales, describing events, daily routines etc by using the
single structure subject+Verb1+ Object. The following story narrated entirely using
subject+verb1+object only Once upon a time there is a lion in a forest. The lion is very
powerful, cruel and arrogant. It is the king of forest. There are crowd of hares also. The lion
searches for food. It gets hungry. It sees a hare and kills it. Other hares are afraid of it. They
meet the lion and request him to kill one animal for a day. It agrees to their proposal. The
hares weep for their fate. One day it is the turn of a female hare. It reaches the lion den one
hour late. The lion gets angry, and asks the reason. She tells that she sees another lion and it
announces he is the king of the forest. The hare takes the lion to a deep well and see its
image. The lion jumps into the well and dies. A crowd of hares feel happy. The above story
contains number of sentences. Each sentence contains Sub+Verb1+Object. One can narrate
past events or incidents by using the structure S+V2+O. For example the sentence I go to
college yesterday is grammatically wrong. So one should have minimum idea that verb2
should be used for past events. Eg. I went to college yesterday. I enjoy to read books is wrong
sentence. Gerund should be used after the verb enjoy. So I enjoy reading books is the right
sentence. One should have minimum idea on articles and preposition rules. For Eg. We say
he is good at English and we don‘t say he is good in English. So if one speaks grammatically
wrong, how can we say he is effective speaker though he speaks fluently? So grammar is
indispensable for the second language learning. If we take If conditions, If I were bird, I
6|Page

would fly & if you had asked me, I would have given. Learners understand clearly the
meaning of these sentences by understanding the usage of appropriate verbs and rules of the
grammar. Learners can improve their speaking skill by knowing the usage of modal
auxiliaries like can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, dare, need not etc for Eg. I
should go, you must learn English, he may come, I can do it. By practicing the usage of
modal auxiliaries, they can enhance their speaking ability. They come to know that modal
auxiliaries follow verb1. All the learners can‘t learn English language in a single point of
view. Research reveals that learners who learnt grammar instruction progressed to the next
stage in the speaking.

ROLE OF GRAMMAR IN WRITING BETTER:

Writing letters, E-Mails, notices, Minutes of Meeting, reports, articles, documents, projects,
journals etc comes under written communication. The meaning will be changed by the wrong
frame of the sentence and it leads to misunderstanding and ineffective communication.
English is the first language in few countries only. . People of these countries may write
correctly. English is the second language in most of the countries. People in these counties
can‘t write correctly without knowing the rule of grammar. General writings and technical
writings should be free from grammar mistakes. So learns should have minimum idea on
grammar to be good at written communication.. For example we take the sentences- Hang
him, not leave him and hang him not, leave him. Though these are same sentences the
meaning will be changed by putting the mark of comma. In the first sentence asking hang
him and in the second sentences asking not hang him. So learners should be good at
minimum grammar to speak and write accurately.

IMPACT OF GRAMMAR ON LEARNING PASSIVE SKILLS:

If the teacher speaks grammatically wrong, the students follow it. Some of the students feel
whatever they listen from their teacher that is right. So he can‘t improve accuracy in students.
Reading is another passive skill. Learners understand and learn usage of prepositions, basic
structures while they are reading articles, journals, newspapers, materials etc. So listening and
reading influence one‘s language learning.
CONCLUSION: So we can compare all parts of the body as rules of the grammar and
movement of the body parts as the usage. The body will be fit & healthy when it has all parts
and use it in proper direction. In the same way one will be effective communicator when he
knows all the rules of grammar and use it appropriate way & speaking fluently. Practice
speaking is the primary step to learn any language. In the beginning learners should focus on
listening and speaking skills along with learning basic grammar rules as grammar is not
acquired naturally and it needs to be taught. So grammar plays a significant role in learning
second language effectively, accurately and fluently.
Sense groups:
What is a sense group?
The speaker will help the listener to share the message completely by giving him or her clues
to brief units of meaning, each at a time, in order to reach the total meaning of the utterance
without confusion. Each brief unit, discretely spoken, is called a sense group and the clue to
understand it is the silence (or pause) that occurs before and after it. The meaning of an
7|Page

utterance will depend on how we identify sense groups with the pauses. When we read a
sentence, we often pause here and there. And usually these pauses are made according to the
grammatical structure of the sentence. Grammatically, a sentence is made up of several parts
and each has its own meaning. These parts can be called sense groups. A sense group can be
a word, an expression, a phrase or a clause. We often use the sign "/" to mark off different
sense groups in a sentence.

Basic rules for dividing a sentence into sense groups:

1.1 Noun Phrase
- Article + Noun —— a country
- Noun + Noun —— coumrade Li
- Demonstrative pronoun + Noun —— this book
- Adjective + Noun —— natural science
- Noun as Adjective + Noun —— New Year's Day
- Participle as Adjective + Noun —— the working class
- Numeral + Noun —— thirty two books
- Numeral + Numeral —— two hundred and twenty three
- Indefinite pronoun + Noun —— some ink
1.2 Pronoun Phrase —— that one
1.3 Prepositional Phrase —— by bus
1.4 Adjective Phrase —— very good
1.5 Adverb Phrase —— very quickly
1.6 Adverb + Prepositional Phrase —— early in the morning
1.7 Adverb + Verb or Verb + Adverb ——quite understand , study hard
1.8 Verb Phrase —— to take a rest , to have a meeting
1.9 Infinitive Phrase —— He likes / to read newspapers after lunch.
1.10 Gerund Phrase —— staying indoors all day / is unhealthy.
1.11 Participle Phrase —— I saw many people / walking along the lake.
1.12 Copula + Predicative —— be well
1.13 Subject + Predicate —— He stands up.
1.14 Subject + Predicate + Object —— I speak English.
1.15 Subject Clause —— That he will come here / is certain.
1.16 Predicative Clause —— This is / how he studies English.
8|Page

1.17 Subordinate Clasue —— He told me / where I could find my book.

1.18 Attributive Clause —— This is a factory / that makes cloth.
1.19 Adverbial Clause —— I waited / till he come back.

Q.3:Make comparison between the following concepts with the

help of examples.
i) Acquisition vs Learning
ii) Fluency vs Accuracy
iii) Encoding vs Decoding
iv) Productive Skills vs Receptive Skills
Ans: Language Acquisition vs. Language Learning
Should grammar be taught to young elementary age English language learners? Learn what
the difference is between language acquisition and language learning.One of the questions I
am most frequently asked is about teaching grammar rules to very young English language
learners. Those of you who follow the "Ask Judie" bulletin board already know my answer to
that question. I would not teach grammar out of context to young students. (I am asked for
grammar lessons for 1st and 2nd graders!) Research has shown that "out of context" grammar
drills do not work with students of any age. Teachers of English language learners should
really be developing the oral communication, reading, vocabulary, and writing skills of their
young students. The grammar will take care of itself. Read predictable books. Teach thematic
units. Any mention of a grammar rule should be within the context of those texts.

Language acquisition vs. language learning

There is an important distinction made by linguists between language acquisition and
language learning. Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which
they are unaware of grammatical rules. This is similar to the way they acquire their first
language. They get a feel for what is and what isn‘t correct. In order to acquire language, the
learner needs a source of natural communication. The emphasis is on the text of the
communication and not on the form. Young students who are in the process of acquiring
English get plenty of ―on the job‖ practice. They readily acquire the language to
communicate with classmates.

Language learning, on the other hand, is not communicative. It is the result of direct
instruction in the rules of language. And it certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for your
young learners. In language learning, students have conscious knowledge of the new
language and can talk about that knowledge. They can fill in the blanks on a grammar page.
Research has shown, however, that knowing grammar rules does not necessarily result in
good speaking or writing‘s A student who has memorized the rules of the language may be
able to succeed on a standardized test of English language but may not be able to speak or
write correctly
9|Page

Accuracy vs. Fluency in TEFL

English is an international language which people
from all over the world learn in order to
communicate with each other. Accuracy and
Fluency are two factors which can determine the
success of English language students in the future.

Essentially accuracy is the ability to produce correct

sentences using correct grammar and vocabulary. On
the other hand, fluency is the ability to produce
language easily and smoothly.

Accuracy
Accuracy is relative. A very young child isn‘t capable of the same level of accuracy as an
adult. The child will make mistakes and misuse vocabulary. Teachers who concentrate on
accuracy help their students to produce grammatically correct written and spoken English,
ideally aiming towards the accuracy of a native speaker of similar age and background. The
emphasis in the classroom will be on grammar presentations and exercises, reading
comprehension and suchlike.

Fluency
A fluent speaker, on the other hand, may well make grammatical errors but will speak or
write efficiently (without pauses). They will be able to converse freely and talk with native-
speakers about many different subjects. Fluency generally increases as learner‘s progress and
become more comfortable using the language. Language teachers who concentrate on fluency
help their students to express themselves in English. They pay more attention to meaning and
context and are less concerned with grammatical errors. Typical fluency activities are role
playing and more communicative activities where English is used as a medium of
communication rather than an end in itself.

Methodologies in Practice
As far as teaching methodologies are concerned, very broadly speaking the communicative
approach is the one that favours fluency the most, while the audio-lingual and grammar-
translation approaches favour accuracy. Typically, at beginner level when the students don‘t
have enough language to worry about fluency, teachers tend to focus on accuracy. This
carries on through to pre-intermediate when fluency activities like discussions and debates
are introduced. Later, when the students are reasonably independent language users, a mix of
accuracy and fluency is used, with the focus shifting to fluency as students advance. One
important point to bear in mind, however, is that too much bias one way or another is not
good. Accuracy without fluency is not useful in the same way that fluency without accuracy
is also not useful. A good mixture – biased towards the needs of the student – is the ideal way
to go.
10 | P a g e

Tests and Exams

Excelling in tests represents but a small part of language competence and a lot of students‘
needs relate to performing in situations that are non-exam focused. However, English
competence exams do drive a lot of the ELT industry and contribute to perpetuating the
supremacy of accuracy over fluency for example, tests like IELTS and TOEFL are very
much focused on accuracy). Benchmark testing on the other hand is a great example of tests
that are not accuracy based (though a higher degree of accuracy obviously accompanies a
higher level of fluency).

Encoding vs. Decoding

Encoding is the process of transforming data in to a different format using a method that is
publicly available. The purpose of this transformation is to increase the usability of data
especially in different systems. It is also used for reducing the storage space required to store
data and for transferring data across different channels. Decoding is the reverse process of
encoding, which converts encoded information back in to the original format.

What is Encoding?
Transforming data in to more usable formats for different systems, using a method publicly
available is called encoding. Encoded data can be easily reversed. Most of the time, the
converted format is a standard format that is widely used. For example, in ASCII (American
Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters are encoded using numbers. ‗A‘ is
represented using number 65, ‗B‘ by number 66, etc. These numbers are referred to as ‗code‘.
Similarly, encoding systems such as DBCS, EBCDIC, Unicode, etc. are also used to encode
characters. Compressing data can also be seen as an encoding process. Encoding techniques
are also used when transporting data. For example, Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) encoding
system uses four bits to represent a decimal number and Manchester Phase Encoding (MPE)
is used by Ethernet to encode bits. The term encoding is also used for analog to digital
conversion.

What is Decoding?
Decoding is the reverse process of encoding, which converts encoded information back in to
its original format. Encoded data can be easily decoded using standard methods. For example,
decoding Binary Coded Decimal requires some simple calculations in base-2 arithmetic.
Decoding ASCII values is a straightforward process since there is a one to one mapping
between characters and numbers. The term decoding is also used for digital to analog
conversion. In the filed of communication, decoding is the process of converting received
messages in to a message written using a specific language. This process is not straight
forward as the previously mentioned decoding schemes, since the message could be tampered
due to the noise in the channels used for communication. Decoding methods such as Ideal
observer decoding, maximum likelihood decoding, minimum distance decoding, etc are used
for decoding messages sent via noisy channels.
11 | P a g e

What is the difference between Encoding and Decoding?

Encoding and decoding are two opposite processes. Encoding is done with the intension of
increasing the usability of data in different systems and to reduce the space required for
storage, while decoding converts encoded information back in to its original format.
Encoding is done using publicly available methods and it can be easily reversed (decoded).
For example, ASCII encoding is just a mapping between characters and numbers. So
decoding it is straight forward. But decoding messages sent via a noisy channels will not be
straight forward, because the message could be tampered with noise. In such instances
decoding involves complex methods that are used to filter out the effect of noise in the
message.

Receptive vs. Productive Language Skills

When you learn a language, you develop both
receptive skills and productive skills. Receptive
skills include understanding when you listen and when
you read. You receive the language and decode the
meaning to understand the message. Productive skills
are speaking and writing. You use the language that
you have acquired and produce a message through
speech or written text that you want others to
understand. When you are ―learning English‖ you are
learning all of these skills. You will be strong in some and weak in others. Your classmate
may have different strengths and weaknesses than you. That is why you shouldn‘t try to
compare yourself to others.

Receptive and Productive Vocabulary

Another example of receptive and productive skills is related to your study of vocabulary. It
is easy to develop your receptive vocabulary. You can study words independently,
memorizing the definitions, the word forms, the collocations and different uses of the words
in context. Your receptive vocabulary can grow and when you see a list of words to study in
your class, you might recognize some of them already. That‘s great but do you use these
words correctly when you speak or write? If you do, they have moved into your productive
vocabulary. This is the goal of your vocabulary study in the Languages Institute. You will see
many new words in your reading texts or hear some in the listening exercises but the words
you study are ones that you should try to use when you write or speak.

Independent Practice
Independent practice can help you practice your receptive skills. Just like the example of
vocabulary, you can do extra reading and extra listening on your own to improve your
receptive skills. Improving your productive skills by yourself is more difficult. You can write
something alone but you can improve more when someone reads what you write. You can
speak to yourself in a mirror, but it is better practice speaking to another person. In both
cases, you can see if your message is understood. However, just like the example with
12 | P a g e

vocabulary, the more that you develop your receptive skills, the more that they can affect
your productive skills in a positive way. Reading more will help you write better. Listening
more will help you improve your speaking skills.

Productive skills improve from stronger receptive skills. This term, make the decision to do
all you can outside of class and take advantage of your time inside of class and you will
improve both your receptive and your productive skills!

When we listen to someone talking, we first take in a sequence of sounds, a phonetic event,
but our understanding is not a matter of grasping one sound after another, nor even one word
after another. We organize the message into sense-groups (Clark and Clark 1977:43–57).
Possibly the speaker helps by speaking in sense-groups, making the pauses that are needed
for breathing between sense-groups; for example, at some of the places marked ‗ pause)‘ in
this utterance: ―I‘ll let you know the answer pause) as soon as I get the information pause)
from a friend of mine pause) who lives in Winchester.‖ What we call a ‗pause‘ may be an
instant of silence or it may be simply the lengthening of a final sound, for example,
information-n.) But conversational speech is not usually so neatly organized. As speakers we
typically hesitate as we figure out what we intend to say; we put in ‗fillers‘ ―Well‖; ―As a
matter of fact…‖); we repeat; we correct ourselves ―I mean‖), we appeal to the addressee‘s
understanding ―you know‖). So even a short utterance like the one above may come out this
way: ―Well, I‘ll uh let you know pause) the answer pause) as soon—as soon as I get the
information (pause) from a friend of mine (pause) um you know (pause) who lives in
Winchester.‖

This may look strange on the printed page because in written English we are used to seeing
the result of careful planning and polishing, but conversational speech is scarcely ever
planned or polished. As listeners we ‗edit‘ what we hear, separating the pauses, fillers and
repetitions from the ‗gist‘ of the message. Thus, although we can‘t grasp a spoken message
without hearing it (perception), our knowledge of the language enables us to distinguish
between what communicates and what does not. Listeners—and readers—use their implicit
knowledge of the language to grasp the message they are dealing with. For instance, if we
encounter the verb put in an utterance, we are prepared to find three expressions telling us
who puts, what is put, and where it is put. With the verb travel we unconsciously recognize
that there will be information about the person(s) traveling and perhaps about the starting
point, the goal, the route taken, and the duration of time. The verb buy must be accompanied
by an expression that names the buyer and item(s) bought and there is likely to be
information about seller and price, as well. One part of semantic analysis, therefore, is
concerned with describing the kinds of expressions which usually accompany various
verbs—what roles these expressions play with respect to the verb and to each other—the
who, what, where and when.

Q.4: Distinguish between active & passive vocabulary. Enlist the main problems
encountered by vocabulary learners. Also formulate suitable criteria for choosing
vocabulary items to be learnt.
13 | P a g e

Ans: Active vs passive vocabulary - do you know the difference?

When you say you know a word or phrase, you could mean one of two things. First, you
could mean that if someone says the word to you, you know what it means. This is passive
knowledge. The second way of knowing is that you can recall and use that vocabulary
appropriately. This is active knowledge. This isn‘t anything to do with active or passive voice
in grammar. It‘s about how you store your memory of a word for later use, and there‘s a
large, important difference.

The difference between passive and active vocabulary

With passive vocabulary, you can listen and understand. Hearing the vocabulary used
prompts you to recall its meaning. In other words, you are being made to recall it. So it‘s
passive vocabulary. Active vocabulary, on the other hand, is vocabulary that you can recall
and use at will when the situation requires it. You are choosing to use the word and actively
retrieving it from memory.

An example
One of our teachers in first year had a great analogy for this. He showed us a £5 note and
asked us what it was. Of course everybody recognized it. Then he asked us to describe a £10
note in detail. Very few of us could come up with much. We knew it had the queer old
dean dear old Queen on it, and a couple of people remembered that Charles Darwin is on the
back. But beyond that we came up with nothing, despite seeing £10 notes regularly (although
not as regularly as we might like, and never for very long). This is the difference between
active and passive knowledge. It‘s whether you can merely recognise something, or actually
reproduce it from memory.

Isn‟t this obvious?

If you find this distinction a bit obvious, then good for you. However, I don‘t remember
really acknowledging the distinction until that teacher pointed it out explicitly. Before that I‘d
been vaguely aware of it, but not enough to act on it when learning. It‘s particularly important
in the early stages of learning a language, before you can start to acquire vocabulary and
improve naturally. As a beginner, you‘re trying to cram in vocabulary as rapidly as possible,
to propel you to higher levels. This is when it‘s easy to get a lot of passive vocabulary whilst
neglecting the active side of things.

This is probably a familiar experience

It‘s easy to forget or ignore this significant difference when you‘re learning words. As
language learners, we often mistakenly think that we ‗know‘ a word because we have no
trouble understanding it when other people use it. But when speaking, how often do you find
yourself talking around vocabulary that you can‘t recall quickly enough? It‘s not necessarily
that you can‘t recall the word at all. Maybe with a couple of seconds‘ thought you‘d
remember it. That‘s not a long time, but it‘s often too long in the middle of a conversation.
The word is in there, it‘s just you can‘t directly recall it. It needs prompting to come out, so
it‘s passive vocabulary.
14 | P a g e

My own example
An example for me is the word 舞池 (dance floor) in Chinese. If I see or hear it I get an
image of a dance floor without any difficulty. But if I was in the middle of saying something
and wanted to talk about a dance floor, I think I‘d most likely say ―the place where people
dance‖. That‘s not necessarily a bad thing - being able to get your point across on the spot is
an important ability for language learners. When your ultimate goal is to speak like a native,
though, you‘ll probably want to get to the point where an apt word does just roll off your
tongue.

Why this is so important for language learners

Simply being aware of this distinction can make a huge difference in your learning. If you‘re
not aware that passive and active vocabulary are very different things, there‘s a risk that
you‘ll become one of the many people who can read and listen to a language very well, but
can speak or write very little of it. Using flashcards for both directions in SRS‖) recognition
and production) is important. Finding ways to engage actively with your studies is important
(trying to teach or explain your target language is a good one). Getting out and using
language in context is important. It‘s this context that will help create active vocabulary. The
first time you encounter the situation, you perhaps can‘t recall the words fast enough. But you
then come to associate those words with that context, and the _next _time they‘ll be there
waiting.

DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING VOCABULARY

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language. Themore words you
know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; and the better you
will be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing. The vocabulary we know can
be divided into two groups - passive vocabulary and active vocabulary. Passive vocabulary
contains all the words that you understand when you reader listen, but which you do not use
(or cannot remember) in your own writing and speaking. Active vocabulary is all the words
you understand, plus all the words that youcan use yourself.Special problems involved in
vocabulary understanding, such as polyse , the word‘sidiomatic usage, false congnates and
distinction between homophones, can also be solved by the context and the
dictionary.Usually the first things you learn about a new English word are what it means and
itstranslation in your own language. But there are other things you need to find out beforeyou
can say that you know a word like a native speaker does. For example, you have tolearn: how
it is spelled, how it is pronounced, how it is inflected (i.e. how it changes if itis a verb,
noun or adjective), other grammar information about it, how it collocates (i.e.what other
words are often used with it).Learning vocabulary seems to be one of the easiest things about
learning alanguage, but it's also one of the hardest things to do, especially when you have
reached acertain level. Learning vocabulary needs practice and time and in our days‘ time is
a problem.

10 Common Vocabulary Problems for Students

Does your kid struggle with reading? They may have a poor vocabulary.
15 | P a g e

These kids usually dislike reading. They avoid

it. They misunderstand instructions on tests and
find instructions and lectures confusing. A lack
of vocabulary can be the cause of poor reading
skills and makes learning every subject
challenging. Luckily this is easy to improve. If
your pre-teen or teenager is struggling you may
want to check to see if a poor vocabulary is
holding them back.

Here are ten common problems

for students who need to upgrade their vocabulary skills:
1. Don‘t know prefixes and suffixes. Knowing Prefixes and suffixes are easy vocabulary
builders.
2. Cannot tell the meaning of a new word from sentence or paragraph. If kids have poor
predicting skills they have blank gaps when they read and miss a lot of information.
3. Primarily read books below their grade level. Don‘t ban comic books or graphic
novels. Find out what genre your child is interested in and encourage them to read
books that will use a wide vocabulary.
4. Don‘t keep vocabulary lists for each subject. Every subject has vocabulary. If your
child is not learning the new vocabulary in every subject they won‘t be able complete
assignments and do well on tests.
5. Cannot tell you what they read or describe story lines. Being able to retell a story
using the words from the story may mean your child need to do extra work to
remember vocabulary.
6. Cannot tell you in detail what they are studying in English class. With a poor
vocabulary students fall behind and feel lost.
7. Struggles to communicate what they are thinking. This can be a lack of words to
describe what they want to say.
8. Writes bland essays. A good vocabulary supports the ability to express you and
communicate unique ideas.
9. Uses the same words over and over again. A lack of descriptive words, adjectives and
adverbs means kids stick to the few words they know.
10. Unable to transfer new words to real life vocabulary. New words are easily forgotten
and never used.

Q.5 Compositions can be assessed by either „impression

marking‟ or „analytic marking‟. Discuss in detail with examples.
Ans: Impression marking: Impression marking of English Language essay and
summary questions by pairs of examiners is shown, as expected, to be more reliable than
single marking. Since the reduction in spread of marks is accompanied by a greater reduction
in the errors, overall discrimination is improved. Given the limited statistical information
available, it is concluded that pairing of examiners can as well be done by random or
quasi‐ random means as by attempts at calculated matching. Impression marking will give
different results to analytic marking, with its emphasis on technical points. Whether this is
desirable or not is a matter for debate. The indications are, however, that the practical
16 | P a g e

consequences of any differences will not be great. By switching from analytic to impression
marking #opeven without introducing multiple marking at the same time#cp a candidate's
result would probable be no more affected than if he or she were to be marked by one
examiner rather than another.

Analytical versus holistic marking schemes

An analytical marking scheme divides the available marks between different criteria, with
weightings according to their relative importance. Each criteria is then assigned a portion of
the available mark according to the standard reached on that criteria alone and the sum of all
the marks gives the total mark. A holistic scheme does not divide the marks between the
criteria. Instead how the criteria contribute to the quality of the whole is considered, rather
than as individual parts.

There are various advantages and disadvantages to both systems

and both are equally valid.
Analytical marking systems can make marking easier when the work being assessed is long
and involved and/or there are many criteria that need to be considered. It can be hard to
sustain the level of concentration required to assess such work holistically and dividing the
task into smaller components simplifies the task. However ideally application of such a
marking scheme requires us to examine the work separately against each criteria which may
mean re-reading the work several times. In reality, we do not do this as it is too time
consuming and instead we do assess against several criteria at once, and therefore in actual
practice we may lose this benefit of an analytic system.

Analytical systems can make the provision of detailed feedback for students easier as
students can receive much information from their marks for each of the criteria. They can tell
exactly which areas were well done and which areas need more work, without the need for
specific comments from teachers. A problem with analytical systems though is that often the
sum of the whole is less than its parts, and teachers may find that the marks awarded from
analytical system do not ―feel‖ right. An example might come from applying an analytical
marking scheme that awards a component of marks to the quality of writing and referencing.
A student may provide a piece of work that is exceptionally well written but completely off
topic. Application of the analytical marking scheme though may well provide a passing mark,
when the work is in fact irrelevant. Another example is commonly encountered in
examinations where students approach the task by disgorging all they can think of on a
subject rather than actually answering the question. Their answer may contain many true
statements that could earn marks, but can also be full of irrelevancies or even contradictions,
17 | P a g e

or be so illogically presented that holistically it is worth very little. Strict application of an

analytical markings scheme may result in much higher marks than is actually warranted. A
student who writes far less may actually provide an answer that holistically could be
considered to be worth more. The opposite can also be found, especially when students
produce highly original work, which may be of excellent quality, but those qualities have not
been captured by the pre-prepared marking scheme. It is argued by some that it is impossible
to define all aspects of quality in advance – only a sample of possible qualities can ever be
specified. Furthermore aspects of quality often overlap and cannot be neatly divided into
separate parts for marking.

Holistic marking systems avoid these issues but are seen by some to be less objective, since
the process of awarding marks against criteria is internalised and not so explicit. However
holistic marking schemes are time-honoured and used in many areas where judgement is
required and are considered equally valid. In the end all marking requires a judgement. I
often switch between the two systems as I need to, to best manage workload. I prefer using a
holistic system but will often use a skeleton analytical system to help me most easily provide
feedback to students and to aid my marking task, especially when working in situations when
I might be interrupted. I will then overlay a holistic judgement and may alter the component
marks of an analytical system to meet my holistic judgement.