Dictation

In order to assess students’ listening skills in a Form 3 class of low proficiency, a full dictation text about Air Pollution will be administered.

Air Pollution

Air pollution is the mixing of any harmful substances to the atmosphere fresh air causing huge level of damages, human health disorders, reducing the quality of life, etc. Air pollution is increasing day by day because of the increasing number of industries. Such polluted air never remains at one place however spread to whole environment and affecting the lives of the people all through the world. Death rates of the human beings have been increased because of increased variety of diseases. The polluted air we breathe every moment causing lungs disorders and even lung cancer thus affecting the health of other body organs.

Air pollution is continuously damaging the whole ecological system and affecting the lives of plants and animals as well. It has reached to the critical stage and affecting the whole atmosphere by allowing more harmful radiations from the sun to the earth. Again polluted air acts as a better insulator which prevents heat to get escaped back into the space.

Objectives of the test:

1.     Students will be able to audibly recognize –s sounds in plural nouns and spell them correctly.

2.     Students will be able to convert the spelling for words that end with –y to -ies.

I will read the text to the students in a clear and audible voice for a minimum of 3 times. I will first read the text at a normal pace, with appropriate pauses at the natural break points. I will then repeat myself in a slower speed, long enough for students to write down what they have heard. I will also repeat each sequence twice while the students are writing. At the end of my dictation, I will read the text again at a normal speed for students to proof-read their writings before collecting their papers. The learner response would be that students are able to write a text based on what they heard.

I will only score students based on the accuracy of the spelling of the 17 plural nouns (including the repetitions of some words) from the text. I will ignore the minor spelling errors which are unrelated to the plurality of the words as well as punctuations. The expected positive washback is that students will pay full attention and be alert in class. Students will also be able to apply their knowledge from previous lessons about changing singular words to plural words.