Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Understands and appreciates stories, including those told by other learners:
• responds personally and critically, asks and answers questions;
• evaluates the storytelling technique and performance, and gives feedback.
• Understands oral texts (e.g. poems, radio plays):
• answers questions of growing complexity;
• identifies point of view;
• retells and summarises;
• describes the features or characteristics of different kinds of oral texts (e.g. poem or factual text).
• Listens for specific information:
• takes own simple notes;
• uses information to complete a table or chart, or label a diagram.
• Listens actively in discussion:
• shows openness to ideas and treats the views of others with respect;
• invites contributions from others and responds to their views;
• is prepared to challenge others but does so politely and does not interrupt them;
• criticises the ideas and not the person.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Translates and interprets:
• tells stories from home language in the additional language;
• translates or interprets messages.
• Interacts in additional language:
• uses language for a range of functions: offers and invites (‘Would you like ...?’),
politely refuses (‘I’m sorry ...’), etc.;
• takes part in role-plays of different situations involving different kinds of language (e.g. reporting a crime to the police).
• Shows developing ability to use features of spoken language to communicate: word stress, weak vowels, intonation and rhythm.
• Debates social and ethical issues:
• shares roles (e.g. chairperson, timekeeper, secretary);
• brings people into the discussion (e.g. ‘What do you think?’, ‘Don’t you?’);
• interrupts politely (e.g. ‘Excuse me...’);
• expresses opinions and supports them with reasons (e.g. ‘I’d just like to say that ... because...’);
• expresses agreement (‘You’re right.’) and disagreement (‘Yes, but...’);
• switches languages where necessary.
• Interviews someone:
• formulates and asks relevant questions;
• uses appropriate tone, register and body language;
• records responses.
• Demonstrates critical awareness of own language use:
• uses language to include rather than exclude people;
• is strategic about when to use additional language and when to use home language.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Reads a text (fiction or non-fiction):
• identifies purpose, audience and context;
• infers meaning (things which cannot be found directly in the text);
• explains and assesses point of view in both the written and visual parts of the text (e.g. says whether the view of the world represented is fair or stereotypical);
• distinguishes main points from supporting detail;
• with fiction, demonstrates an understanding of character, plot and setting.
• Understands some elements of poetry (e.g. simile, rhythm), and understands some of the terms used to describe this language (e.g. simile).
• Reads and responds to social texts (e.g. personal letters, notices):
• identifies purpose, audience and context;
• describes features of the type of text being read (e.g. a personal letter).
• Reads for information:
• follows information texts (e.g. an explanation of how something works, like our kidneys);
• reads diagrams, graphs and charts of increasing complexity;
• summarises information.
• Analyses photographs in texts (e.g. advertisements and newspapers):
• identifies the subject, context, audience and message of the photo;
• identifies from whose point of view the photo has been taken;
• identifies what has been left out of the photo and why;
• judges whether the photo is memorable and gives reasons.
• Uses reading strategies:
• matches different ways of reading to different texts (e.g. scans a telephone directory);
• develops and evaluates reading speed;
• uses strategies to work out the meanings of words (e.g. looks at illustrations or diagrams, and discusses the word in home language).
• Reads for pleasure:
• reads fiction and non-fiction books at an appropriate reading and language level;
• reads some new kinds of books (e.g. crime thrillers);
• reads and writes book reviews.
• Shows some understanding of how reference books work:
• uses contents page and index to find information;
• uses a dictionary and a simple thesaurus.
• Demonstrates a reading vocabulary of between 5000 and 6500 common words. Learners who will study other Learning Areas through their additional language should aim for 6500 words.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Writes to communicate information:
• writes a short explanation of how or why something happens (e.g. how an electric circuit works);
• writes one or two paragraphs about the advantages and disadvantages of something (e.g. cars as a form of transport);
• uses information from a survey to write a report (including heading, introduction, how the research was carried out, the results, and recommendations);
• writes text types required in other Learning Areas (e.g. a historical narrative).
• Writes for social purposes:
• writes personal letters (e.g. politely refusing an invitation), showing awareness of the text type, of purpose, audience and context, and of register/style;
• writes e-mail messages.
• Writes for personal reflection:
• writes a diary.
• Writes creatively:
• shows development in the ability to write stories, poems and play-scripts (e.g. by using figurative language);
• translates stories (and other texts) from home language.
• Designs media texts:
  • designs a simple advertisement or pamphlet;
  • writes a simple news report.
• Treats writing as a process:
• drafts, reads and discusses own writing critically;
• uses feedback to revise, edit and rewrite;
• uses knowledge of grammar, spelling, etc., to edit;
• pays some attention to design and layout.
• Uses developing knowledge of language structure and use:
• makes a text cohesive (e.g. using linking words to link paragraphs);
• writes good paragraphs with one main idea, a topic sentence and supporting sentences, and is able to reflect on it;
• writes introductions and conclusions;
• adopts a point of view.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Uses language and literacy across the curriculum:
• understands some concepts from other Learning Areas and uses the vocabulary associated with them in their additional language (e.g. ‘symptom’ in Life Orientation);
• understands and produces texts used in other Learning Areas (e.g. an explanation of how the kidneys work, or the production of a report in Natural Sciences);
• produces visual or graphic material to support texts (e.g. a diagram for an explanation).
• Uses language for thinking:
• asks and answers more complex questions (e.g. ‘When this is changed, then what else would change?’);
• writes definitions, classifications and generalisations;
• understands and uses evidence to support a theory or argument (e.g. a photograph, objects from the past, an interview with a witness).
• Collects and records information in different ways:
• selects relevant material and takes notes (organises points under headings; abbreviates words);
• reads and synthesises information from two simple texts on the same topic;
• transfers information from one mode to another by, for example, using mind maps.

Assessment standards

We know this when the learner:

• Distinguishes between verbs that can and cannot take the progressive (e.g. ‘I have a problem.’, not ‘I am having a problem.’).
• Uses the future tense with ‘when’ clauses (e.g. ‘When I finish work, I will rest.’).
• Uses the past perfect (e.g. for reported speech).
• Extends use of nouns (e.g. countable and uncountable nouns).
• Extends use of determiners (e.g. some and any: ‘I have some paper, but I don’t have any chalk.’).
• Uses modals to express politeness (e.g. ‘Can/Could I borrow a pencil?’).
• Understands and uses the second conditional (e.g. ‘If I met the President, I would ask him to build houses for everybody.’).
• Uses some language to talk about language (meta-language - terms such as pronunciation).
• Expands vocabulary (e.g. by mind mapping related words, such as words about war).
• Demonstrates an understanding of between 5000 and 7500 common spoken words in context by the end of Grade 8. Learners who will do some of their learning through their additional language should aim for 7500 words.